Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is rejecting criticism that he has become a “lame-duck” leader in the face of ongoing corruption scandals threatening to derail his government.

Mr. Singh spoke with newspaper editors Wednesday.

During the two-hour discussion, Mr. Singh said he accepts full responsibility for any actions his government has taken. The prime minister added that relations with Congress Party chief Sonia Gandhi have never been better and that he meets with his party leader every week.

Mr. Singh also indicated that he was open to the idea that younger members of his party, such as Rahul Gandhi, take over the reins of the government one day. But he said that so far, he has not received any indication that the party wants him to step down from office.

A series of recent corruption scandals has beleaguered Mr. Singh's government. Authorities currently are investigating whether organizers of last year's Commonwealth Games in the Indian capital received kickbacks totaling billions of dollars. In addition, the government says it lost up to $40 billion from the sale of mobile phone licenses at below-market rates.

Indian activists have called government's recent efforts to tackle corruption “symbolic.” The government postponed the next session of parliament from mid-July to the beginning of August in order to give it more time to reach an agreement on how to solve the problem.

Lawmakers have struggled to reach an agreement with civil society activists who are pushing for a tough new law to tackle graft. The government so far has rejected the activists' proposal that an ombudsman would have powers to prosecute the prime minister, senior judges and lawmakers.