NEW DELHI (TIP)Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on April 5 said that he would welcome Rahul Gandhi as PM anyday. Talking to reporters at the sidelines of a function at Rashtrapati Bhawan to give away Padma awards, Dr Singh, in a reply to a question on whether he welcomed Mr Gandhi as prime minister, said oh yes anyday. Gandhi, who was appointed as vicepresident of Congress in January, has been reluctant to join the government. Even yesterday he dubbed as “irrelevant” the questions over whether he would become the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister was also asked to comment on Rahul Gandhi’s speech at the CII yesterday to which he remarked, “excellent”. Manmohan also dismissed as a “useless” the debate over two power centres even as he did not rule out his accepting the third term. “This is the creation of the media. It is a useless debate,” he told reporters here when asked about the issue of two power centres coming into focus after senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh raked it up recently. Digvijaya Singh had said the two power centres — one the Congress President Sonia Gandhi and another the Prime Minister — had not worked well and should not be repeated. Congress officially rejected this contention of Digvijaya Singh and said it was an “ideal model” for future also. When asked whether he would accept the third term as Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh said, “it is a hypothetical question… We are yet to complete this term.” The current term of the government will end in May next year. Asked whether he was ruling himself out, he said, “I am not ruling it in, I am not ruling it out.”