Manmohan achieved hell of a lot,says Rahul

Asked about Advani’s oft-repeated criticism of Singh as a weak Prime Minister,he said Singh had shown tremendous grit and determination.

“Let us not go back very far. During the (negotiations on) US deal,the Prime Minister showed tremendous grit,will and toughness.These are easy things to say. If he is a weak Prime Minister he did not buckle in front of terrorists in Kandahar.”

“He has achieved a lot for the country. I do not think he is weak. He has whole support from me,” Gandhi said.

When a questioner asked him to compare Advani with the Prime Minister,he said he did not want to make statements about Advani ‘who is a senior leader’ but he would definitely speak about Singh.

Gandhi said,”Advani is also a senior leader. He is the leader of the BJP. It is not my intention to make statements on Advani. I do not like to make statements but I can say a little about my leader but I do not see myself saying something about Advani.”

He said he had the pleasure of working with Singh who he considered was one of the top leaders of the country,a first class gentleman and an honourable gentleman.

Asked whether he saw himself as Prime Minister in the near future,he said this question has been raised quite often in the past and added that when the doors of politics are open to youngsters,he wanted to attract youths to enter into politics.

“I enjoy doing this work,” he said referring to the work he had done in Punjab and other states where he enrolled lot of young members into the party.

Gandhi said in Punjab the membership of youth Congress has gone up to 300,000 from 30,000 and in Gujarat he has been able to enroll 12,000 youths into the party.

To a question whether youth would be given more tickets in Congress to contest Lok Sabha polls and whether it was possible since senior leaders dominated the party,Gandhi said first of all it was wrong to say seniors leaders were dominating the youth. In fact,he said,there were lot of senior leaders who were promoting young leaders.

Apparently referring to a speech he had made in the CWC where he had spoken about giving 20 per cent tickets to youth,he said there was a process by which youth contest polls through the elections to the local bodies,legislatures and Parliament.

In exceptional cases the party could give tickets to youngsters in Lok Sabha polls.