The Congress on Tuesday fully backed Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s comments regarding the constraints of running a coaltion government, and said his acknowlegement of the limitations the party was facing in leading such a government was a proof of his statesman-like qualities that sought to look at the larger picture.

“Congress is inching forward in coalition politics. That itself is an achievement. As the Prime Minister, he has to take the entire nation into confidence, and if he explains why he cannot march fast, it does not mean he is weak,” AICC media department chairman Veerappa Moily said in response to media queries on Dr Singh’s comments made on Monday at a conference on federalism.

Limitations

“While putting forward the national and Congress agenda, there are limitations (in a coalition government)… people should be made aware of it,” Moily said strongly backing Dr Singh’s remarks.

“The Congress and the UPA do not have majority and have to take outside support, and that itself is a limitation,” he said. “We have to live with the constraints of coalition. We should work horizontally and not vertically,” he added.

Stressing that it was the first time that the Congress was part of a coalition experiment, he said what the PM had said in the context of compulsions of coalition politics was a “fact”.

“He has not attacked regional parties. Regional parties have their own agenda and there is nothing wrong in it.”

“We have to coalesce national and regional interest, but regional interest should not overshadow national interest,” Moily said.

“He spoke about the ideal thing, but it does not mean practical things are forgotten,” he said, adding that while the economist in Dr Singh saw things logically and analytically, “it does not mean we are not aware of practical limitations”.