New Delhi: Sonia Gandhi today commended Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for efficiently steering the country through the global economic crisis and the PM returned the compliments hailing her role as the longest-serving Congress president who led the party to power for a second time at the Centre.
"When the world was facing economic crisis, even then India witnessed high growth rate under the UPA government. This happened because of capable leadership of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh," Gandhi said in her address at AICC meet here.
On his part, Singh opened his speech congratulating Gandhi for becoming the Congress president for another term. "In our party's history, no party chief has served as long as Soniaji. In the last 12 years, Soniaji has given Congress a new direction. It is the result of her guidance that a Congress-led UPA government has come to power for a second time," he said
while hoping that she would continue to lead the party for a long time. The Prime Minister rounded off his speech expressing confidence that under Gandhi's leadership, the party would touch new heights of success. For this, let us all together strengthen Soniaji's hands and move forward."
Rahul Gandhi, who spoke briefly, too said that the growth rate, which Singh is trying to achieve, was necessary for taking India forward. Singh had earlier said that India needed to quickly revert to nine per cent economic expansion and aim at double-digit growth rate.
Indian economy had been growing at nine per cent before it was affected by the global economic crisis. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee also praised the 'dynamic leadership' of Singh saying that efforts have been made to make the growth more inclusive.