NEW DELHI, Sept 15:
Government is “gravely mistaken” if it feels that it can shift focus from corruption with its decision on FDI in multi-brand retail, BJP leader L K Advani today said and warned that it is committing “harakiri”.
Advani also attacked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as the Coal Ministry was with him when the controversial coal blocks allocation was done, saying it “has made ‘Coalgate’ a fitting climax for exposure of the series of scams starting with the 2G and Commonwealth scams of 2008.”
He said the government’s decision to allow 51 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail comes at a time when the ‘Coalgate’ issue was in focus across the country was viewed by some as a “desperate bid” to shift the focus of debate from corruption to ‘reforms’.
“If Government really thinks so, it is gravely mistaken,” Advani said on his blog today, adding that the decision was taken on a day when the Supreme Court has put six pertinent questions to government about this coal scandal.
“The FDI in retail issue may actually prove for UPA nothing other than Harakiri (self destructive),” Advani said.
The BJP leader said, “The Judiciary, the CAG and the Opposition in Parliament, together with the media, have ensured that the corruption issue continues to dominate the people’s mind until the next Lok Sabha elections.”
He also hoped that the Congress will be decimated in the next Lok Sabha elections, claiming that the BJP will be the “biggest beneficiary”.
“I sincerely hope that just as the 1977 election results have guaranteed that no government hereafter will think lightly of abusing the Emergency Article 352 again, the outcome of the forthcoming Assembly as well as Lok Sabha polls will make politicians realise the heavy cost they have to pay if their hands are seen by the electorate as sullied by corruption,” he wrote on his blog.
Advani said the country’s politics has reached a point where the ‘Coalgate’ issue raised very powerfully in Parliament by NDA “has been taken serious cognisance of by the Supreme Court”.
The BJP leader had earlier said on his blog, “I would not be surprised if in the coming Lok Sabha elections, the Congress Party’s score slumps to just two digits, and that the biggest beneficiary of this would be the BJP.
“If and when this happens, the BJP would be able to claim as its third achievement: a major first step has been taken towards creating a Corruption-free India,” he said.
Advani claimed that fighting the “traumatic” Emergency and saving democracy is the second major contribution made by the BJP.
The BJP veteran described “transforming India’s single – dominant-party polity into a bipolar polity” as BJP’s main contribution to national politics.
He said it was unfortunate that the Congress did not view bipolar polity as a boon for the country and its democracy but regards the BJP “as an enemy which has to be defeated, and decimated, at all costs”, instead of interacting with the principal opposition that prove beneficial for governance.
In this regard, Advani lauded Pranab Mukherjee for being an “exception” and said “he did maintain a continuing contact and interaction with leadership of the principal opposition”.
“So, when recently after the CAG report on Coal the Congress Party indulged in some very irresponsible and even slanderous comments against the CAG, we decided to call on him and urge him to administer some sage counsel to his erstwhile colleagues,” he said on his blog.
With the CAG under attack from the ruling Congress over its report on the allocation of Coal blocks, Advani also recalled how in a book edited by M Hidayatullah, he found out that in 1953, B R Ambedkar during his Parliament speech had not only described the Comptroller and Auditor General as “probably the most important officer in the Constitution of India,” but also regretted that he had not been given adequate powers to discharge his duties properly. (PTI)
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