No friends or foes in politics: Manmohan

There are no permanent allies in politics and no permanent enemies either, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said yesterday.
"In politics, there are no permanent enemies or friends," the prime minister told reporters on his way back from a trip to Japan and Thailand.
He was responding to a question on whether the Congress would make up with the Left or the Trinamool Congress ahead of the next general elections.
Meanwhile, rejecting reports of a rift between him and Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday asserted that there was no truth in it as the two worked together almost on all issues.
"In all truthfulness, there is no difference of opinion between me and the Congress president," he told reporters on his way back from the five-day visit to Japan and Thailand.
"We work together on almost every issue and where consultations are needed, I consult the Congress president," he said.
He was responding to a question about perception of a trust deficit and divergences between him and Gandhi.
"This perception that on certain issues there were differences of opinion, there is no truth in that," he said.
He was also asked whether Gandhi had nudged him against his wishes to get the resignation of Ashwani Kumar as law minister and whether he faced a tough situation when CBI director Ranjit Sinha named a joint secretary in the PMO as having made changes in the agency's affidavit to the Supreme Court on Coalgate but the prime minister did not spell out his response to this.