Rajnath plays forward defensive

Last week, Rajnath Singh met beat reporters in the capital for the first time since he took over as Union home minister. So far, he has been evading the Delhi media by slipping into the ministry from the back door, or spending his time in different states where he has held press meets. Not that this meeting yielded much because Singh had little to say on anything he was asked. After being prodded and confronted, exasperated journalists eventually asked him, "Why don't you speak and answer us?" This, too, was met with silence. A close aide then felt it incumbent on him to explain that the minister didn't want to become tomorrow's newspaper headlines and that he is playing a "Test Match", whereas reporters wanted a One-Day or 20-20 performance.