Sanjay Baru: People have a right to know about the successes & failures of PM
13 Apr, 2014Amongst criticism to penning down of memoirs, Sanjay Baru, former Media Advisor to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, has defended his book and its contents. Dr. Singh's current Media Advisor Pankaj Pachauri had said that it is an attempt to misuse a privileged position and access to high office to gain credibility and to apparently exploit it for commercial gain.
In his book - 'Manmohan Singh: The Accidental Prime Minister', Baru had pointed to the weak position of the Prime Minister in the UPA government. Baru defended his 'memoir' saying that the people have a right to know what happens in the highest levels of government. He said that the process of decision making should be before the citizens and pointed to similar practice prevailing in other democracies. He contended that this was the thinking underlining the philosophy of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, that the people have a right to information.
He claimed that the motive cannot be questioned and he has recorded the facts for posterity as he saw it when he was in the government.