Telling absences

What does Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have to say about the state of the economy, the United Progressive Alliance's chance of making a comeback in the next elections, Modi, Rahul Gandhi, the recent entitlement laws and other issues of national importance? You would think senior journalists and editors would flock to a meeting with the PM to find out. But ahead of scheduled time, the organisers discovered that the allocated space in the meeting room at the prime minister's residence was half empty. To save embarrassment all round, those journalists who did attend were ushered into a smaller section of the meeting room - and there were empty chairs even then.