New Delhi, July 7
Having been isolated in his own party and under personal attack from the Opposition, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh got some solace today when the Congress put its best foot forward to defend him and dispel the widespread impression about serious differences between the PM and the party.

Not only did the Congress go out of its way to compliment the Prime Minister for doing a “magnificent job” in implementing the ruling coalition’s pro-poor agenda, it also hit back at the BJP for describing him as a “weak and ineffective PM” for succumbing to pressure from the UPA partners on the disvestment front.

In fact, the Congress turned the tables on the BJP when it dug out details about the numerous instances when the NDA regime had to “rollback” its decisions following strong opposition from its partners or from within the BJP. “Given that they went back on their decisions so many times, it does not lie in the mouth of the BJP to criticise the PM. By that token, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee was the weakest Prime Minister,” Congress spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan said here today.

The Congress defence was aimed not just at puncturing the Opposition campaign but also at correcting the impression that the party is not standing by Dr Singh. This perception gained wide currency after the recent meetings of the CWC and CMs of Congress-ruled states where speakers had indirectly criticised the Centre’s handling of the price situation.

Accusing the BJP and other opposition parties of launching a baseless campaign against the Prime Minister, Mrs Natarajan maintained that yesterday’s decision to put all disvestment decisions on hold was a response to the sensitivities of UPA partners and not a failure of decision-making or a reversal of the reforms agenda as was being made out by the opposition.

She presented a detailed account of the number of times that the NDA was forced to backtrack on its disvestment plans on BALCO, NALCO and HPCL because of internal pressures. Mrs Natarajan reminded the BJP about the time when it put off disvestment of Tyre Corporation of India and Tea Estates after Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee clashed with Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha.