Manmohan Singh is Mr Clean of Indian politics: Rahul Gandhi

Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi on Friday called Prime Minister Manmohan Singh the cleanest man in Indian politics today.

Gandhi said this in reply to a question posed to him at an in-camera meeting with youth leaders here.

Asked about the three most honest politicians in the country, Gandhi named Singh, defence minister AK Antony and home minister P Chidambaram.

The Congress general secretary, who interacted with youth and student leaders in Ahmedabad, Rajkot and Vadodara, is reported to have had a candid interaction with the youth.

The meetings were aimed to boost the membership drive of the National Students' Union of India, student wing of the Congress. Reporters were not allowed to attend any of these meetings.

According to NSUI national general secretary Shahnawaz Sheikh and central election committee member Vinaysinh Tomar, Gandhi described the prime minister as a "bullet-proof man", apparently indicating his shield of honesty and his non-corrupt past.

Gandhi, who has restructured the Youth Congress in the country through elective representation rather than nomination, made it clear that he wants to follow the same pattern in the NSUI.

He said he himself was a beneficiary of the present system of encouraging "family ties" and people with strong "connections and political family background" but said he disliked the system and wanted to encourage all those who possess the tenacity to climb up the ladder through sheer dint of hard work instead of being cherry-picked through "connections".

Gandhi said it was his desire to fulfil the incomplete mission of his grandmother Indira Gandhi and father Rajiv Gandhi.

He said the "communication revolution" brought about by his father had worked wonders for the common man and the country. "The tool of the rich is the handmaiden of the poor today," he said.