Before his quotes, PM finetuned script with Sonia, top colleagues

After half-an-hour, they were reportedly joined by senior ministers like Shivraj Patil, Pranab Mukherjee, Arjun Singh, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Congress leaders like Ahmed Patel.

It’s clear that the stand that Manmohan Singh took on a host of issues — and that included distancing his government from Mani Shankar Aiyar’s views on Veer Savarkar or the way the ‘detoxification’ campaign of Arjun Singh is playing out — has the backing of the Congress party.

There’s a growing feeling within the Congress that the Manipur issue has not been handled well and that Home Minister Shivraj Patil should have gone to Manipur much earlier to defuse the situation after the alleged rape and murder of Manorama Devi. But there’s also the realisation that in the given situation, the Armed Forces Special Powers Act cannot be repealed.

When Manmohan Singh ‘‘committed’’ his government to a separate Telangana state on Saturday, it raised eyebrows all around: it was the most categorical statement made on the issue by the Congress so far. It has evoked a sharp reaction from the state unit of the party.

Sonia Gandhi has been soft to the idea of Telangana and TRS chief Chandra Shekhar Rao, who had agreed to be a Minister without portfolio, is expected to get an important portfolio in the next Cabinet reshuffle. But committing the government to the creation of the state of Telengana is also being seen as an attempt to chasten Andhra Pradesh CM YSR Reddy who has been moving independently of the AICC in many ways and promoting his son. During the election campaign, the Congress had not gone beyond promising the constitution of a second States Reorganisation Commission to go into the question, while being sympathetic to the idea of Telangana. .

Congress leaders also decided to defer the Cabinet reshuffle till after the Maharashtra polls. Both Sonia Gandhi and Singh felt that nothing — whether it is the reinduction of Soren, or divesting Mani Shankar Aiyar of Petroleum — should be done now which could queer the pitch for the party in thecoming polls, especially in Maharashtra.

The PM has not been very happy with the way some of his ministerial colleagues have functioned. But it was the first time that he expressed an oblique criticism of it. While he described what Aiyar had said about Savarkar as his personal views leading to an ‘‘unnecessary controversy’’ , he also made it plain that while distortions needed to be corrected, he did not want education to become a prisoner of any ideology.