No disconnect between his govt and Congress party: PM

New Delhi, Sept 6 (PTI) Rejecting perceptions that
there was a disconnect between his government and the Congress
party, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Monday
that expression of different view points was not not
"necessarily a bad thing".
He did not not see anything wrong in ministers and
party functionaries expressing different points of view
because the Congress party itself was a movement within which
there have been differences of opinion as happens in a
democracy.
However, it was necessary for the Cabinet and the
government to function with a "certain degree of cohesion" and
his Cabinet had functioned with a "much greater degree of
cohesion" than even the first Cabinet headed by Jawaharlal
Nehru, Singh told a group of editors at his residence here.
He pointed out that there was almost daily exchange of
letters between Nehru and his deputy Sardar Patel. There were
differences between Indira Gandhi and her deputy Morarji
Desai.
During Mrs Gandhi's time a group of "Young Turks" led
by Chandrashekhar openly constituted a dissident group, he
said during the 80-minute interaction that turned into a
virtual press conference covering domestic political issues,
economy and foreign policy.
Prime Minister emphasised that he was not not aware of
anything that could constitute a disconnect between the
Congress party and the government. "Allowing people to
express views is not not necessarily a sign of drift," he
said.
"I can't say I will shut up every colleague," he said,
at the same time thanking his Cabinet colleagues for their
fullest support.
The Prime Minister made it clear that he was not not
thinking of retiring and indicated that he would "look at
options" of a Cabinet reshuffle before the next session of
Parliament beginning Nov 7.
"I would like to reduce the average age of my
Cabinet," he said with a chuckle.(More) PTI MKR
AHM


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