Arun Jaitley lambastes PM over corruption charges

Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley on Tuesday hit out at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, saying Singh was leading the ?most corrupt? government in Independent India.

Taking pot-shots at the prime minister, the senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said Singh?s ?clean image? cannot abstain him from owning responsibility for the alleged rampant corruption by his government.

?People say he (Manmohan Singh) is personally honest…. It is a strange honesty that he leads the most corrupt government in India since 1947,? Jaitley said, addressing an anti-corruption meet here.

Jaitley alleged that the ruling Congress was ?perverting? all institutions.

Citing Central Bureau of Investigation?s (CBI) ?failure? to crack Ruchika and Aarushi cases, he alleged that the CBI was too busy framing charges against rival parties of the ruling party.

Jaitley criticized the appointment of PJ Thomas as the Central Vigilance Commissioner despite opposition by the BJP.

He also slammed the Congress on the Bofors gun deal kickback charges, pointing that its former prime minister late Rajiv Gandhi?s involvement is clear in the scam.

Jaitley also criticized the economic policies of the government and alleged that it had no clear strategy to deal with other issues, including Naxalism or the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

?Prices of onions and tomatoes are not coming down, interest rates have been increased six times which is having a bad effect on the stock market…. We have a Prime Minister who is also an economist. But in the last three years he did not have any solution to deal with it. It is his biggest failure,? he said.