Congress pledges 'unstinting' support to Manmohan Singh

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday said former prime minister Manmohan Singh was a man of integrity and he had the "unstinting support" of the party.

She along with senior party leaders - members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and members of the Congress Working Committee - led a solidarity march from the Congress party headquarters to Singh's house.

"We are outraged at the news of summons being served to former prime minister Manmohan Singh... He is known for his integrity and probity not only in the country but across the world. We are here to offer our unstinting support to Manmohan ji," she told reporters here.

A special court here on Wednesday summoned Singh, industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla and former coal secretary P.C. Parakh in a coal block allocation case, terming it a "criminal conspiracy" with the objective to "do an illegal act".

Senior party leader and a former minister in the UPA-II government, Anand Sharma said that nobody could question the transparency and honesty of Singh and the truth shall prevail.

"The Congress party is with Manmohan Singh ji and the the party is not going to bow to any situation... We have full faith that in this case too the truth will prevail," Sharma said.

Another party leader and former defence minister A.K. Antony, who was part of the march, said they were sure that Singh will come out clean.

Jyotiraditya Scindia, a sitting Congress MP from Madhya Pradesh, said: "We express our solidarity with the ex-prime minister. We are very confident that he will emerge clean, something that he remained during his public life."