Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi said on Wednesday that he considers Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are his political gurus.

“I have two gurus in politics. One is Congress president Sonia Gandhi Ji and the other is Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Ji and I want to assert that no one has done more for the country than what has been done by Manmohan Singh Ji,” he said. Rahul was speaking at the foundation stone laying ceremony of a cancer hospital here.
 

Lauding the PM, Rahul further said, “The most important quality in a politician is intent. If the intent is not correct then nothing can be achieved.”

“Manmohan Singh Ji’s is intent is clear. He changed the course of the country after 2004,” he said.

Rahul’s statement can be seen as part of an aggressive damage control exercise that he has embarked on after he ruffled quite a few feathers by publicly rebuking an ordinance proposed by the Union Cabinet under Dr Singh that had aimed to protect the interests of convicted MPs and MLAs.

Rahul said that the UPA government believes in the politics of empowerment and has empowered the citizens of the country irrespective of caste and creed by giving them right to food, employment.

Besides Rahul, Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and state Congress leaders Pratap Bajwa and Capt Amarinder Singh were part of the event.

On the Ordinanace, Rahul reiterated what he had yesterday said at his rallies in Uttar Pradesh, he said, “Opposition asked me about the timing of my ordinance stand, then I asked them- do we have to see the watch before speaking truth?”

“Journalists told me in Gujarat that my views on the Ordinance were correct, told me country is behind you,” he added.