Advani slams PM?s ?indefensible defence?

Senior leader of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Lal Krishna Advani in a blog post on Saturday lambasted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh?s assertions that no Congress members were involved in vote-buying to win a confidence vote in 2008.

Defying resignation calls from BJP, the main opposition party, Singh had questioned the veracity of the claims based on U.S. diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks that accused members of his government of paying off lawmakers ahead of the crucial vote.

The trust vote, on July 22, 2008, had helped his government pass the historic 2008 Indo-US civil nuclear deal that paved the way for foreign countries to enter the India?s USD 150 billion civilian nuclear energy market, ending its nuclear isolation following the atomic test in 1974.

The deal faced stiff opposition in the country?s parliament over the issue of limiting liability of foreign suppliers that enter the industry and its slow progress frustrated U.S. analysts.

In a statement to the Rajya Sabha on Friday, Singh said, ?No one from the Congress Party or the government indulged in any unlawful act during the trust vote…The government rejects the allegation as absolutely false.?

Advani on Saturday in blog post on Saturday trashed statement as ?a frantic but futile effort to whitewash the biggest scandal that has taken place in independent India?.

Hitting out at Singh for saying that the people of India had responded to the BJP?s earlier allegations over the alleged scandal with a wider defeat in the 2009 general elections thus affirming the Congress? integrity, Advani reminisced of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

?Does he (Singh) realise that by the same logic, the 1989 verdict of the Lok Sabha would mean that the Indian electorate had pronounced Rajiv Gandhi guilty in the Bofors scandal?? the BJP patriarch wrote.