After Karat, Bardhan hails PM as " sajjan purush"

New Delhi, Nov 1 (UNI) For the second consecutive day, the Left lavished fulsome praise on the "personal integrity" and "sajjanta" (gentlemanliness) of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh saying their differences with him pertained to his policies - economic, foreign and the N-deal.

" We have never levelled individual allegations, Dr Singh is undoubtedly a "sajjan purush"( a gentle man), no question on his personal integrity.. he has very courteous attitude to the coalition partners and the supporting parties," said CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan at a press conference.

At the end of the two day deliberations of the 131-member party National Council, preceded by a day-long National Executive, Mr Bardhan, the veteran communist, made it clear that the quarrel had never been about his personality.

Only yesterday his CPI(M) counterpart Prakash Karat had said that differences with Dr Singh on the N-deal did not mean that" we don't have respect for the PM." Hailing the PM's" unquestioned integrity" Mr Karat disagreed with the suggestion that Dr Singh should step down as he could not go ahead withe nuclear agreement." There is no reason why the UPA government should not complete its full term." To a specific query whether the Left had now become" soft" towards the government, he emphasised," we have not changed our position. It remains the same. We are of the considered view that the deal is not in the national interest." UNI