Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan, a file photo

NEW DELHI: Congress president Sonia Gandhi is a "source of strength, not a source of weakness for me" Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said here on Wednesday. He made it clear that she had a "legitimate influence" on government functioning.

He displayed wit and aplomb while handling a number of questions on domestic political issues at his press conference.

How would he rate the performance of his Government? What score would he give it on a scale of one to ten considering that last year in September he had given himself 6 marks? In a candid answer the Prime Minister said that he was the target of strong criticism from his party for giving his Government (only) six marks. "This time I leave it to you."

More than once he was asked about the charge that he was a "weak Prime Minister" and his response was that he should be judged not by what Mr. Advani says but what he delivers to the country. When again a similar question was popped, he answered it politically. Mr. Advani was, presumably, a strong leader of a major political party. Yet, "how strong was Advani? He went to Karachi and paid homage at the `mazhar' [mausoleum] of [Pakistan's founder] Jinnah. The RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh] did not like it. Where was Advani as a result of that?"

While admitting that the Congress needed to do a lot in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh to recover lost ground, Dr. Singh was quite cool when repeatedly asked about the differences with the Left and the prospect of increasingly louder rhetoric as elections in West Bengal and Kerala drew closer. First of all, "there was no fear of the Government falling. It will complete its five years."

Pressures expected

Dr. Singh said that in a coalition government working within the framework of a democracy "pressures were not unexpected" and that he saw such pressures "serving a useful purpose" of debate and discussion before a decision was taken. "I don't think the Left parties will block the way to progress," he said.

He was asked how and why there was the impression that he seemed unaware of happenings related to the Volcker report and Ottavio Quattrocchi's bank accounts. Did he approve of the defreezing of Mr. Quattrocchi's London bank accounts? The Prime Minister stuck to his publicly stated position: "freezing and de-freezing of accounts is not undertaken at the behest of the Government. The Central Bureau of Investigation took some steps on the basis of legal advice."

On the larger issue of corruption, the Prime Minister was convinced that the Right to Information Act would have "revolutionary implications" that would "make government functioning more transparent than it has ever been before."

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