Party behind PM, says Sonia Gandhi

With the political cauldron simmering over the ‘harsh’ comments made by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi against the government decision to bring an ordinance to protect convicted lawmakers, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday moved to assuage ruffled feathers as prime minister Manmohan Singh returns from his 5-day visit to the United States.

Speaking at a rally at Mandya in Karnataka, the Congress president said, ‘I want to tell them (BJP) that the whole party, the whole party stands behind our Prime Minister.’ The response came after the BJP ridiculed the Congress and the Prime Minister over Rahul Gandhi’s comments.

‘They (BJP) ridicule our achievements; they make fun of our party and our Prime Minister,’ Sonia said. ‘It was under Singh that all achievements of the UPA government had been made,’ she said. The remarks are significant as the Opposition took advantage of Rahul’s public outburst against the ordinance to say he had undermined Singh, that too when he was on an overseas trip.

Rahul’s remarks that the ordinance was ‘complete nonsense’ and should be ‘torn up and thrown away’ had come under scathing attack from BJP, which saw it as a public censure of Singh. ‘We are not afraid of the BJP; we are not afraid of any opposition party,’ Sonia said.