Leaders rally behind Manmohan Singh over Congress legacy from 2004 to 2014

NEW DELHI: Even as the veterans vs Team Rahul war within the Congress is out in the open, former Union Minister Shashi Tharoor came to the rescue of party colleagues Manish Tewari and Milind Deora, saying the UPA's transformative 10 years were distorted and traduced by a motivated and malicious narrative.

Tharoor took to Twitter and wrote, "I agree with Manish Tewari and Milind Deora. UPA's transformative ten years were distorted and traduced by a motivated and malicious narrative. There's plenty to learn from our defeats and much to be done to revive Congress. But not by playing into the hands of our ideological enemies."

His remarks came amid the row over a Congress meeting chaired by party interim chief Sonia Gandhi two days ago, which saw arguments and sharp criticism by younger leaders who appeared to blame the party's last government for its downfall.

Amid the criticism of the senior leaders, a section of the party rallied behind former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Twitter.

Congress leaders Anand Sharma, Tharoor, Tewari and former Mumbai Congress chief Deora - all ministers in Singh's cabinet at one point - defended the former Prime Minister, tagging criticism for him as "ill-informed" and part of a "motivated and malicious narrative".

Earlier in the day, Deora responding to a tweet of Tewari said, "Well said, Manish.

"When demitting office in 2014, Manmohan Singh said history will be kinder to me. Could he have ever imagined that some from his own party would dismiss his years of service to the nation and seek to destroy his legacy - that, too, in his presence?"

Deora's remarks came after Tewari on Saturday hit out at party leaders who questioned 10 years of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) rule at the Centre, calling them "ill-informed".

Interestingly, he gave the example of the BJP to put out a contrasting picture on party unity. (IANS)

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