Manmohan digs in his heels

"The prime minister is fine. There is nothing wrong with him," an official said robustly. However, for much of the last week, Singh's agenda has been blank. On Saturday, his only engagement read: RBI Governor Y V Reddy.

But for the most part, the prime minister has been at home, resting but not unwell, with his office making no strenuous effort to scotch rumours swirling in the capital that he had resigned.

If Singh has adopted a stance metaphorical to crossing his arms over his chest and pouting, it is because he is upset, his supporters say. He feels, they say, that there is no better time for India to go to polls than November. The new US Congress will come into office only on January 20, 2009.

So if the Congress storms the polls on an appropriate plank, it would be able to shrug off the malefic and negative influence of the Left parties, form a government on its own and still catch the US calendar to clear the Indo-US Civil Nuclear deal, for which a window will remain open till January 19, 2009.

However, the rest of the Congress party is not as sanguine about the outcome of a poll, and this is perceived as lack of confidence in the prime minister. Congress managers believe it will be harder to win elections at 11 per cent inflation than 8 per cent.

But what is puzzling them is: What is Singh upset about? In the Congress, the slightest signal from President Sonia Gandhi would have started a deluge of demands for him to step down. In the last few days, not one Congressman