Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday asserted he is not thinking of early retirement. This is the second time he has spoken on this issue.
He also rejected suggestions of a “disconnect” between his government and the Congress and made it clear he would not ask every Cabinet colleague to “shut up”. He s
aid he saw nothing wrong in the expression of different points of view by his ministers. Moreover, the Congr-ess was a mass movement in which people express their views, he said. It was necessary, however, that the Cabinet and the government function with a “degree of cohesion”, Dr Singh said and added that his Cabinet functioned with a “much greater degree of cohesion” than even the first Cabinet headed by Jawaharlal Neh-ru when there was almost a daily exchange of letters between Nehru and Sardar Patel.