Manmohan best person for the PM job, says Khurshid

Rubbishing all criticism of Manmohan Singh being a weak prime minister, Law Minister Salman Khurshid on Sunday said he was the best person for the job and had provided “thoughtful, philosophical” leadership in uncertain times.

“I don’t think we could have had a better person in these times, when we have been under stress...we have had a lot of questions raised about how India should be governed and how it is being governed,” Khurshid told Karan Thapar in an interview on the Devil’s Advocate programme on CNN-IBN.

He maintained Singh had provided leadership at a time when there were “dark clouds” about the Indian economy, the monsoon, and on how the country moves forward with important economic changes.

“Singh is the best person we could have had,” he said.

Asked about problems with allies like the Trinamool Congress and how Singh had failed to stand up to them, Khurshid said he alone could not be held responsible.

Sections of the Indian and foreign press have criticised Singh as a weak Prime Minister. After Congress failed to convince Trinamool Congress on FDI in retail, the Wall Street Journal had said Singh’s “humiliation is complete”.

“That is not just the Prime Minister. If our allies have a problem moving as fast in a particular direction as we want to take, it is not just for the Prime Minister but for the government. Let us not segregate the Prime Minister from the party and the party from the government. We are all in it together,” Khurshid said.

The Law Minister said there could be differences with allies but “we come together to find exactly what is to be done and he leads from the front”.