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Sonia lashes out at Team Anna, defends PM
Our Political Correspondent

New Delhi, June 4
The battelines are clearly drawn. A day after Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev teamed up to put the UPA government on the mat on the issue of corruption, an unusually combative Congress president Sonia Gandhi slammed civil society groups and the opposition for levelling “baseless” allegations against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the ruling coalition which, she added, were part of a conspiracy and will be countered.

Sonia’s tough talk at the CWC meeting today came on a day when BJP President Nitin Gadkari met Baba Ramdev and promised his party’s full support to his anti-graft campaign. Team Anna has demanded a special inquiry against PM for his role in the allocation of coal blocks when he briefly headed the coal ministry and 14 UPA ministers on the plea that corruption cases are pending against them.

While the PM has already denounced these charges and has said he will quit public life if the allegations against him are proved, this is the first the Congress president has defended the PM and other ministers named by Team Anna.

“In a democracy, it is the job of the opposition to oppose but the manner in which opposition and some anti-Congress elements are, part of a conspiracy, levelling baseless allegations against the Prime Minister, the UPA government, the party and some of our colleagues is most unfortunate,” Sonia Gandhi said in her opening remarks.