Thiruvananthapuram, September 29
In an apparent attempt at assuaging his feelings in the wake of Rahul Gandhi's denunciation of the government, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi today praised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, saying schemes launched under his leadership have helped millions of people from the marginalised sections.

"They (marginalised sections) faced discrimination at every level. The UPA government, led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has uplifted millions of people through its flagship schemes," she said at a function at Neyar Dam, about 30 km from here. The remarks came amid a political storm over Rahul's attack on the ordinance to protect convicted lawmakers which he described as "complete nonsense" and a document that "should be torn up and thrown away".

"What our government has done as far as this ordinance is concerned is wrong," the Congress vice-president had said on Friday. After the outburst, Sonia Gandhi had spoken over telephone to the Prime Minister, who is in the US, and Rahul also wrote to him expressing his "greatest admiration" for Singh's leadership in extremely difficult circumstances.

The Congress had made Rahul's letter public hours after his attack. The controversial ordinance, approved recently by the Union Cabinet presided over by the PM, seeks to prevent immediate disqualification of convicted MPs and MLAs and negate a Supreme Court judgment on this. Sonia Gandhi today said, "The Congress always stood for the Gandhian principles of inclusive development and the party would continue to make efforts for the development of all sections of society based on this concept." She was speaking after inaugurating the Research-cum Training Centre attached to Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Development Studies set up by Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee.

The UPA chairperson noted that discrimination on the basis of gender, caste and class faced by marginalised section in the society was still a problem in the country and urged the policy makers to evolve policies and programmes to address it. "We need to do much more to empower poor and marginalised," she said. — PTI