Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday tried to assert his authority by brushing aside talks of dual power centres within the UPA and also kept alive his option for a third term in office.
After the Congress acknowledged the existence of the dual power centres within the ruling coalition, and leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitely on Thursday expressed dismay that the elected head of Government did not have the last word in decision-making, the PM on Friday blamed the media for the controversy.
"This is the creation of the media. It is a useless debate," he said when asked about Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh's statement that two power centres have not been effective.
The PM's cryptic comment is being seen as his way of silencing his critics who have been questioning his authority by raking up the dual power centres controversy. Since Manmoahns Singh is a man of few words, such loaded statement from him is open for interpretation. More so, when a section of the Congress leaders has always tried to remind him that his survival as the PM depended on the whims of 10 Janpath.
Manmohan Singh may blame the media for the controversy, but the facts remain that his own party leader Digvijay Singh kicked it off. Congress media incharge Janardan Dwivedi made it official by asserting that the present model has worked very well for the party and can be replicated in future also.
Manmohan Singh also added fuel to the existing confusion over the Congress Prime Ministerial candidate for 2014 lok Sabha polls by indicating that he is keeping his options open for the third term.
"I am neither ruling myself in, nor ruling myself out," the Prime Minister told the media after conferral of Padma Awards to 108 eminent persons at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Though initially Singh said that questions about his third term as PM are hypothetical as his government is yet to complete the term, when asked whether he rule himself out as the PM, he gave this cryptic reply. Singh's statement is significant as just a day ago Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had said that questions about whether he would become the PM are "irrelevant."
Admitting that the decision of his third term will rest on Rahul Gandhi's wish, Singh said he would any time welcome Rahul to become the PM.
With PM's authority under question, the Congress went on offensive. Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari taunted the BJP over its numerous claimants for the Prime Minister post.
"If you look at BJP, you have Prime Ministers in waiting, you have PMs in lurking, you have prime ministers who are sulking, and you have all sorts of tendencies which are reflective of a term which can be characterised as internecine intra-party warfare. So when from the BJP talks about dual power centres, it just makes me laugh, at times makes me feel like crying," Tewari said.