The Congress on Monday lauded its own government at the centre, saying UPA II had performed "exceedingly well." Briefing mediapersons on the completion of the second year of the government's tenure, party spokesperson Manish Tiwari evoked six parameters of appraisal, rating the government's performance anything between "satsfactory" to "excellent".

Setting poltical stability as parameter of evaluation, Tiwari said that the fact that the government has held majority on the floor of the house, despite the Congress-DMK alliance coming under the cloud on numerous occasions in the past year. He also clubbed the "peaceful" conducting of the recently concluded assembly polls in five states and one union territory with the UPA-II's 'achievements' in political stability.

"UPA partners have taken down a government that was in power for 34 years in West Bengal. This has been achieved without any violence, any anarchy marring the democratic exercise of polls," the Congress spokesperson stated.

Listing communal harmony as another parameter in the assessment, he said that the government is committed to cracking down on forces that stand in the way of India's pluralistic society.

Tiwari rated the government's efforts in ensuring internal security as "satidfactory" even as Maoist activity continues unabated in some states. He admitted that there have been episodes of violence in the northeast and the northwest parts of country. Tiwari, however, held cited historical reasons as the cause of the violence. On the Maoist problem, he said that the government was collaboarting with state government's to tame the ultraleft radicals.

However, he hailed UPA's landmark social welfare legislations as the stellar achievments of the government.

"The right to education (RTE) follows in the success of RTI and the employment guarantee legislation," he said, noting that the government was taking steps to intoduce the food security bill in Parliament.

"We are probably the first country to have made constituional rights of the fundamental needs of citizens. We are in the process of setting a model for the developing nations to follow," the party spokesperson said.
 
Commenting on foreign policy successes of the last two years, Tiwari commended the government for having garnered considerable weightage for its claim for permanent membership of the UNSC and G20.

However, he admitted that corruption remained a challenge for the present government. But he insisted that the governmnet was proving its mettle in this regard also.

"We have matched our words with our actions. There is no disconnect in our intent to fight corruption and our actions towards the same," he said.