Manmohan Singh young in mind unlike Advani, says Rahul

Kochi: Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi on Monday said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is "young in mind" and had the vision for the future unlike his opponent who lived in the past without a plan for the years to come.

"Youth is not how old you are. It is the attitude that is important. Our prime minister is a young man and he is young in mind because he understands technology, globalisation, economics and he puts it all together," Gandhi, who was on a daylong visit to Kerala, said at a press conference here.

"A young person looks to the future, the old looks to the past. My prime minister, your prime minister, our prime minister looks into the future. When he did reforms in 1991, he looked 20-30 years ahead. If you sit with him, he will start telling you one, two, three, four, five, six, seven his plans," he said.

Without naming the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani, Gandhi said: "His opposition is a person of the past. He looks at 2009 to 2004. They only speak of what we did. There is no statement coming there about the next five years."

About Advani constantly referring to Manmohan Singh as a weak prime minister, Gandhi said that he and the youth of the country wish to know from Advani why he said he was unaware of Jaswant Singh taking freed terrorists to Kandahar in 1999.

"The gentleman who was released later attacked parliament and there could be only two possibilities - despite he being the home minister, either [then] prime minister A.B. Vajpayee did not trust him or Advani is telling a lie."