Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday. (Press Trust of India)
Congress president Sonia Gandhi consulted her party's top leaders and best legal minds to discuss how to challenge a court summons to former prime minister Manmohan Singh in a coal scam case, sources have told NDTV.
Dr Singh will appeal against the summons in the Supreme Court. Former law minister Kapil Sibal, one of the country's top lawyers, will represent him, along with KTS Tulsi, sources say.
Mrs Gandhi held discussions with Mr Sibal, another former law minister Ashwani Kumar, and the party's leaders in Parliament, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday, hours after a special CBI court named Dr Singh as an accused in a case linked to the illegal allocation of coal mining rights.
This morning, Mrs Gandhi led over 100 party leaders in a
"walk of support" for the man who led two successive Congress-led governments. Party leaders and MPs walked around half a km from the Congress office to Dr Singh's home.
"We offer our unstinting support and are fully behind him. We shall fight this not only legally but with all our means at our command," Mrs Gandhi told reporters.
"We have no doubt whatsoever that he will be vindicated," she asserted.
The 82-year-old former prime minister was seen beaming at his party colleagues. "I am more than pleased and we will fight this case to the best of our ability," Dr Singh told NDTV.
The Congress president has missed the last few days of Parliament because of viral fever and her silence was noticed on Wednesday. Though the Congress held a special briefing and top leaders came out strongly in Dr Singh's support, sources say Sonia Gandhi wanted to counter any impression that he is fighting a lone battle.
The "walk of support" was seen as the party's answer to members of the ruling BJP who blamed the Congress for Dr Singh's legal troubles.
"I am upset, but this is a part of life," Dr Singh told reporters yesterday on the summons, looking visibly distressed.