In his first public comments on the DMK-Congress alliance after the arrest of Ms Kanimozhi, DMK MP and daughter of former Tamil Nadu chief minister M. Karunanidhi, an UPA ally, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Saturday that “as of now the DMK is our partner and there is no change in it”.

The PM was responding to a question on whether the government and the Congress party had reached out to the Jayalalitha-led AIADMK in a bid to bring them in as their new partners in Tamil Nadu.
Asked whether he was satisfied with the investigation into the 2G scam, all that Dr Singh said was, “The CBI is at work and the matter is in the courts.” But he also sought to allay fears that the corrupt would not be brought to book, saying, “Corruption is something that concerns all citizens and I share that concern. There have been aberrations that have been brought up. We are very sincere in our desire to curb corruption. We are open to all new ideas, whatever will help to clean Indian politics of the scourge of corruption will have the full support of our government.”
On the long-awaited Cabinet reshuffle which he had earlier said would take place before the Monsoon Session of Parliament, Dr Singh said, “When I go back home I will apply my mind.” Asked again, he said with a smile: “I don’t think this is a matter that can be discussed in a press conference, do you?”
Commenting on recent Assembly election results that decimated the Left in West Bengal and Kerala, Dr Singh said he was not an expert on the politics of the Left but “the people of the two states have spoken and that is a telling manifestation”. He said “Left politics has also to learn important lessons about the functioning of our polity”.
Defending the track record of the UPA-2 government, which celebrated its second anniversary last week, he reverted to his economic avatar and said his government’s commitment was “to accelerate the tempo of economic growth to ensure that our country grows at the rate of about nine to 10 per cent per annum, and also in the process to ensure that this growth benefits all sections of our communities. These are the key priorities of our government. They have not changed.”
Calling on political parties not to politicise the issue of land acquisition, which he described as essential if a country is to industrialise and provide jobs and opportunities for its educated unemployed, Dr Singh admitted that there was a need for a fresh approach to the “very sensitive” matter of land reform, which had seen a spate of protests in Uttar Pradesh and other areas. “On land acquisition, we need to think afresh. We have a bill that has been on the table for quite some time and we are committed to bring this bill for approval by Parliament in the next Monsoon Session,” he said in an onboard press meet while returning to New Delhi from the Tanzanian capital Dar es Salaam. “I do recognise acquisition of prime land arouses valid concerns,” he said. “One way to ensure this is that land possession does not become an instrument of depriving our farmers of their livelihood,” he said.