Advani blasts Manmohan, Congress retorts
L K Advani on Tuesday pulled up Manmohan Singh for being ?the weakest Prime Minister? India has ever had, earning him a sharp rebuke from the Congress party that blasted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) patriarch for double standards.
Addressing a rally at Esplanade on the Sahid Minar ground in Kolkata, Advani slammed the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government for tapping the phones of political adversaries and countless others unjustifiably, while lambasting the Prime Minister once again on the corruption issue.
Within hours, the Congress hit back at the senior BJP leader, comparing him to a ?a stuck gramophone record? and demanding to know what his party was doing in Karnataka where the Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa stands accused in land scams.
At his rally in Kolkata, Advani demanded what the government has to say over why so many phones were tapped if those whose phones were tapped were not criminals.
“I am appalled to know that so many phones were tapped,” he said.
He said there is not a single day on which a scam is not exposed and the central government is neck deep in corruption, reiterating the demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the 2G spectrum scam.
With elections in the state hovering over the horizon, top BJP leaders, including leaders like Arun Jaitley and its president Nitin Gadkari, gathered in Kolkata on Tuesday for a two-day meeting of its central office-bearers.
Taking on the ruling Marxists in West Bengal, Advani said that the party?s ideology has lost its steam. If there is widespread support for anything now, it is democracy, he said.
Advani also took a jibe at the Trinamool Congress, its former ally from West Bengal that is now the second largest member of the UPA coalition government at the Centre, after the Congress. The party is always switching sides, he said.
He rapped TMC for staying silent while the Centre battles dozens of corruption cases.
BJP President Nitin Gadkari said, ?As a partner (in the UPA government), Mamata (Banerjee) must clear her stand. Why are you silent? If you are honest, raise your voice. It is a double standard that you maintaining and people will no longer trust you.?
Other BJP leaders also spoke at the rally slamming the Centre on issues like price rise and corruption besides phone tapping.
?The Government has to confirm that tapping is being done on consideration of security and also state how many phones are being tapped,? said Arun Jaitley.
Alleging that it was a ‘gross misuse of power’, he said that the government must come out with a clarification.
The party also demanded a statement from the Prime Minister on the S-Band allocation controversy since the matter involved the country?s security.
The BJP demanded formation of Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to probe not only 2G scam, but also the controversies surrounding the Commonwealth Games, S-Band allocation and Adarsh Housing allocation.
In New Delhi, the Congress hit back at the party?s leaders and pulled up Advani for turning a blind eye to the Karnataka situation using the JPC demand for the BJP?s political advantage.
“Unfortunately chairperson of NDA (National Democratic Alliance) has started sounding like a stuck gramophone record,” Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari said, referring to Advani.
He said the BJP is attacking the Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh) personally and has taken a strategy which can be called “shoot and scoot.”
“I would like to ask Mr Advani where does BJP stand on issue of corruption in Karnataka? Have they taken any substantive stand on Karnataka?” Tiwari said.