Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday conceded that 2 per cent agricultural growth was not acceptable.
Dr Singh said the government is able to contain inflation to 4 per cent, but in the next two years Central assistance worth Rs 5,000 crore would be given to the states to aid the farm sector.
He also agreed that the government has been late in taking big steps in the farm sector.
However, Dr Singh was confident that the United Progressive Alliance government will sustain the movement of the growth of economy and agricultural growth will get attention.
Dr Singh was speaking to women journalists at his 7, Race Course Road residence in Delhi. When asked why he wanted consensus in passing the Women's bill, Dr Singh spoke in favour of it and said that it would be brought about as soon as possible.
When the journalist argued with him further, he said, "Before politicians become statesmen, they have to remain in office for long!"
About the Indo-US civil nuclear energy deal, he said National Security Advisor M K Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon would go to Washington to sort out "the two or three issues" that are still pending between the two countries.
"Whether we succeed or not only time will tell," he said adding, the "outside" limit for the deal is not yet fixed.
Asked about Bush's decreasing clout, Dr Singh expectedly played it safe and said, "We'll cross the bridge when we come to it. We should wait for the outcome of the talks."
He strongly denied any co-relation between the deal and the arrival of the US nuclear ship USS Nimitz in Indian waters. Rather, he advised that too much should not be read in the arrival of USS Nimitz.
On being questioned about the Right to Information Act, he said it was a landmark judgment, but should not be misused.
When further asked on why he was not permitting an Indian Foreign Service officer access to material that lead to the appointment of Foreign Secretary S S Menon, Dr Singh informed that he is the involved party so he could not speak on the issue, but hastened to add, "There are no files existing in PMO" over the issue.
While stoutly supporting the candidature of Pratibha Patil for the presidential poll, he said, "I believe we have made right choices. We are not apologetic about it."
Dr Singh said Pratibha is an outstanding lady who has been in public life since 1962 in various posts, and that she has been in government for some 18 years.
While talking about terrorism and stereotyping of a community, Dr Singh said in a soft voice that he remembered how it was being a Sikh at a time when every ordinary Sikh in India was labelled a terrorist.
Dr Singh told journalists that Indians should be very, very careful before branding entire communities or entire nationalities as people who have linkages to terrorism.
"We should see that we do not create an environment where terrorist elements take root in our society," he advised.
