PM must resign: L K Advani

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) patriarch L K Advani on Thursday said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should quit after the expose in the WikiLeaks cables that Congress had purchased lawmakers to survive in July 2008 during the previous government.

“The PM must quit forthwith,” he said, adding that in July 2008 also the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had maintained that the vote of confidence won by the then United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government was influenced by bribery.

The US was interested in our trust vote, he said.

The set of communiqu?s, or cables, between U.S. diplomatic officials — accessed by The Hindu daily — show that they (USA) were assured by Nachiketa Kapur, an alleged aide of Congress leader Satish Sharma, that the party had gathered about Rs 50-60 crores to buy out votes to allow the deal.

Advani said Pranab Mukherjee’s defence that the matter ended with the 14th Lok Sabha was an “incredible” defence.

“There is no end to scandal and stinks that accompany this government,” he said.

The NDA demands that this government has no moral right to continue and it must quit, he said.

He said Indian democracy is shamed by the ruling government.

“After this exposure, we say that this government has lost its moral right to continue for a single moment,” Advani said.

Earlier, in Parliament, BJP leader Arun Jaitley said the government is surviving on “political and moral sin.”