He was addressing a press conference winding up his three-day visit to Bangkok to participate in the first ever summit of BIMSTEC, an economic group comprising India, Thailand, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Nepal and Bhutan.
"Sometimes in politics the best becomes the enemy of good," he said in reply to questions on the issue of the Election Commission's recent proposal to bar people chargesheeted in cases six months before announcement of elections from contesting polls.
NDA to boycott ' tainted ' ministers
Explaining the compulsions, Singh said the RJD and JMM were important partners of the UPA coalition government. If their representatives had not been included, "we would have handed over the reign to BJP which we did not want to happen." In such a situation, he had no other option as "we were in an era of coalition politics." Given the nature of the electoral mandate the only "sensible course" was this (to include the "tainted" ministers), he said.
Giving his "honest" view, the Prime Minister said the Chief Election Commissioner's detailed note on the issue of electoral reforms was being vetted by the Law Ministry before it was sent to the Home Ministry.
After getting the views of the two ministries, Singh said he would like to discuss the matter with all political parties to evolve a consensus on the issue of crimalisation of politics and inclusion of tainted ministers.
Pointing out that this was not the first time charge-sheeted ministers have been included in the cabinet, he said the "time has come for all political parties to sit together and debate the issue in a bid to evolve a political consensus."
CPI against tainted persons in ministry
He said he wanted to raise the issue of evolving political consensus on the matter but was not allowed to address the Parliament. "There should be a debate on what constituted criminal activity. What is criminal."
In an obvious reference to the involvement of BJP leaders in the demolition of Babri Masjid, Singh said, "If you lead a mob of large people which kills 200 people and try to get away by saying this is a political crime," how could such a statement could be justified, he wondered.