By IANS,
Amethi : Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi Wednesday said he supported Prime Minister Manmohan Singh “100 percent” on the India-US nuclear deal over which the Left withdrew support to the government.
“I will support the prime minister 100 percent on this,” Gandhi told reporters in his Lok Sabha constituency here in Uttar Pradesh.
Expressing his faith in Manmohan Singh, Gandhi said: “If the government fails (in the parliament floor test), so be it. The prime minister is an upright leader.
“If something is (done) in the interest of the people, numbers do not matter… Sometimes the government has to take a risk to achieve a milestone.”
The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government faces a crucial floor test in the Lok Sabha July 22 to prove its majority in the wake of the withdrawal of support by its erstwhile Communist allies.
Playing down reports over differences within the Congress over the prime minister’s stand on the nuclear deal, Gandhi said: “Senior leaders are convinced that if the prime minister has taken a decision, it is the right one.”
The 38-year-old Congress MP also said that he did not come across a “single youngster” even in the opposition parties who oppose the nuclear deal with Washington.
According to him, the parties who are opposed to the deal have divisions within themselves.
Gandhi, who is in charge of the student and youth wings of the Congress party, also said that Manmohan Singh’s stand on the nuclear deal reminded him of his late father and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s initiatives vis-a-vis the IT revolution.
“I am proud of the prime minister as he has shown his tenacity, vision and leadership,” Gandhi said.