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Manmohan denies reports of Sonia not being PM candidate

Senior Congress politician Manmohan Singh has described as "incorrect" reports that party chief Sonia Gandhi does not want to be a prime ministerial candidate.

In a question-answer session on STAR TV's Janata Ki Adalat, to be telecast tomorrow, Dr Singh, however, said, "Soniaji never said she had come to politics for power, she has said she wanted to serve the Congress. She never said she wanted to be prime minister."

On his chances of becoming prime minister, Dr Singh, a former finance minister, said: "I have said it earlier. I am only a candidate from South Delhi. I haven't thought about anything beyond that."

He said, "My loyalty is to the Congress party, its principles and not to individuals. For me principles are dearer than individuals."

He said he did not have enough funds to fight an election. "But when the party said it was in the interests of the party, as a loyal soldier, I decided to jump into the fray. I am hopeful about my success."

Asked about the corruption cases against Laloo Prasad Yadav and Jayalalitha, both allies of the Congress, Dr Singh said: "Any accused found guilty must be punished, whether it is Laloo Prasadji, Jayalalitha or anybody else.

You should understand what was the Vajpayee government's attitude towards Jayalalitha in the past one year. How, on March 30, 1999, his law minister tried to cover up things for her," he said.

Asked what was the guarantee his government would not do a similar thing, he said, "No, we won't allow any such thing to happen. Whosoever is the accused, if found guilty, will be punished as per law. I can assure you anybody indulging in corruption will not get protection."

Singh had a word of caution on the economic consequences of the Kargil conflict.

"This will push up the budget deficit and even if inflation is under control today, India may be in for an economic crisis in a few months," he said.

He attributed the low rate of inflation to the rise in agricultural production and not to the Bharatiya Janata Party's economic policies.

Asked whether the BJP was implementing his economic policies, Singh said it was to some extent, but it could not do so properly.

"Last year, Yashwant Sinha's budget was disastrous, it was condemned throughout the country. The result was that he had to roll back every week and he became famous as Rollback Sinha."

Holding the BJP responsible for the Kargil conflict, Singh said, "It wouldn't have happened had the Vajpayee government not been sleeping... Thousands of people crossed our border, entered our country, and the defence minister says he believed the Pakistani prime minister was not guilty... Our forces have won a magnificent victory, but this would not have happened at all, had Vajpayee and George Fernandes paid as much attention to defence matters as they should have."

Singh said Vajpayee should have been alerted when defence officials stumbled on the fact that a Belgium firm had sold 50,000 snowshoes to Pakistan.

UNI

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