Click to play videoNew Delhi: It was time Congress president Sonia Gandhi stepped and made the party line clear.
Sources tell CNN-IBN Sonia Gandhi has sent a stern message to all Congress members that there should be no differences of opinion between the party and the Government.
Sonia had to mark this out clearly after several leaders took different lines on the joint statement between India and Pakistan and the End-User Verification Agreement initiated during the visit of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Pallavi Ghosh, CNN-IBN’s Chief Political Reporter, reports that certain Congress leaders have been voicing their concern about the joint statement Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart issued in the Egyptian resort of Sharm-el-Sheikh after meeting at the fifteenth Non-Aligned Summit.
These Congress leaders believe the statement is weighted in Pakistan’s favour and may affect the party’s image, particularly during the Maharashtra Assembly elections.
Sonia concerned is about the party’s bland response to the joint statement and believes this may affect Prime Minister Singh’s image. Singh came out as a strong leader during the Lok Sabha elections when he challenged BJP leader L K Advani’s attack on him.
Sonia wants that image of the Prime Minister to be kept intact and has asked the party to back the Government on policy issues. The Congress appears to be defensive on another foreign policy issue, too.
The Opposition has been attacking the Government for the joint statement and the end-use pact, which it says is intrusive and detrimental to India's security.
Defence Minister A K Antony on Wednesday said the Government didn’t have any reservations about the end-use pact, which will enable the annual inspection of military hardware purchased from the US.
"It has been signed after three years of hard bargaining. Everything has been sorted out. We do not have any reservations," said Antony.
Members from the BJP, Left Front, Samajwadi Party and BSP walked out of Lok Sabha in protest against the end-user pact on Tuesday.
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