PM did what was best for India: Sibal

Kapil Sibal, noted advocate and minister in Dr Manmohan Singh's government, put up a strong defence of the government and said that Prime Minister Dr Singh has done nothing against the interest of the nation. He was arguing the case in a television discussion over a private channel.

Earlier there was an emergency meeting core group of the government headed by Dr Singh, others who joined the discussion included Mrs Sonia Gandhi, congress president and UPA chief, external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee, defence minister A K Antony, home minister Shivraj Patil, Ahmed Patel and Arjun Singh.

When these leaders drove out of the meeting they refused to meet the media persons and their faces were glum. Very little is known about what transpired at the meeting.

Sibal, who has been pressed into defence of the prime minister, said that the left was unnecessarily worried about the bialateral agreement between India and IAEA, which may take years.

"Let us have a full debate on the deal and try to understand what the deal is all about," Sibal argued.

He claimed that Hyde Act would become redundant once this deal is signed -- an argument which only his best of friends would not be able to buy. He accused the BJP of trying to sabotage the deal when during Vajpayee's tenure Jaswant Singh as foreign minister was willing to sign the deal himself.

Dr Singh has taken a hard stand and is determined to call off the bluff of the left parties. Pranab Mukherjee and Antony drove to the residence of railways minister Lalu Prasad Yadav to hold consultation on what to do about demand of the left parties.