Congress comes out at last in PM’s support

After leaving the government to fend for itself for over a week, the Congress has now decided to come out and support prime minister Manmohan Singh's initiative on Pakistan.

The move comes after a 'clear-the-air' meeting between the prime minister and senior office-bearers of the party late on Friday night. A relieved Manmohan Singh declared that the government and the party were indeed on the same page on the issue.

"There are no differences in perception between the Congress party and the government on the Indo-Pak joint statement," Singh said on the sidelines of a function at Rashtrapati Bhawan on Saturday.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi herself will signal the party's support by strongly endorsing the government's stand during her address to the Congress party on July 30. The prime minister has taken the onus of explaining and defending his decision before Parliament and he will do so in the form of an intervention on July 29 during the Lok Sabha debate on the external affairs ministry.

The controversial joint statement was discussed threadbare and the prime minister spent a considerable amount of time clarifying the position adopted by the government at his meeting with Pakistan's prime minister in Egypt.

Manmohan Singh told party leaders that there was nothing to be defensive about and explained in detail all that had transpired at the meeting as well as the stand adopted by him. Singh made it clear that he had done nothing that was either against the nation's interest or contrary to India's position on the issue of terror. He, in fact, maintained that the statement now gave the country greater elbow room in its negotiations with Pakistan.

The prime minister also strongly defended the reference to Balochistan in the joint statement, maintaining that India's hands were clean and it has nothing to hide. Friday's late-night meeting was held at the prime minister's Race Course Road residence and attended by Sonia Gandhi, Pranab Mukherjee, AKAntony, P Chidambaram and Ahmed Patel.

Thus far, the Congress party has been on the defensive and seemingly hesitant to come out in support of the government. But after Singh's detailed explanation, the leadership has decided to whole-heartedly support the PM's initiative and all party MPs have been instructed to aggressively counter the opposition, both inside and outside Parliament.

The party is also in the process of arranging for its MPs to be briefed on the issue by foreign ministry officials.