By IANS,
New Delhi : Hours after Communist leader Prakash Karat blamed him for the political crisis in the country and accused him of being “obsessed” with the US, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Friday received kudos from Congress president Sonia Gandhi for his “achievements”.
“I have no hesitation in extending to him on behalf of myself and all of you (Congress party members) congratulations for the achievements of the government. It is not often, we have a leader who lets his work speak for itself rather than lofty speeches,” Gandhi wrote in a letter to party workers in the latest issue of the Congress magazine Sandesh.
In an article in the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) mouthpiece People’s Democracy, party general secretary Karat accused Manmohan Singh’s government of being “obsessed with its vision of becoming a strategic partner of the US” and warned that ignoring people’s issues would benefit “rightwing forces” in electoral politics.
Relations between the Left and the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government have been stretched to breaking point over differences on the India-US civil nuclear deal. Gandhi’s words of praise come at a time the prime minister is under increasing pressure for his reported insistence in going ahead with the civil nuclear deal with the US.
Pointing out that the country was “facing a difficult situation due to rising prices”, Gandhi said Congress-led state governments had adjusted state taxes on petroleum products as requested by the prime minister and herself.
She reminded its members that only a “vibrant organisation at the grassroots” was capable of carrying messages of the party.
“We have to strengthen the party and our partymen and have to build a living contacts with all its members at each level with the people. This is the task we have to set ourselves to, in the coming months,” she said in the letter.