Patna, Oct. 9: The BJP today launched a full-fledged attack on the Congress-led central government, just two days ahead of L.K. Advani’s Jan Chetana Yatra to campaign for clean politics and good governance.
Explaining how the party had maintained a strong stance on corruption during their tenure at the Centre, BJP chief spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Ravi Shankar Prasad said: “Buta Singh, an Independent MP was a minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 1998. But the Prime Minister ensured that Singh resigned from his post after his name figured in a corruption case. Though our government fell by one vote, Vajpayeeji never compromised.”
Citing another example in support of his claim, Prasad said Advani stuck to his announcement of not contesting elections when his name figured in the Jain Hawala case in 1995. The senior leader stood for elections only after court gave him clean chit.
Prasad, the convener of the yatra that would travel through 23 states and four Union territories, claimed that Congress stood exposed on the corruption issue.
“Though the party sacked A. Raja, who is languishing in jail at present, it chose to defend P. Chidambaram against whom the nature of charge is same as the one against Raja,” he said.
“Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has learnt no lesson from history. Earlier, he had defended Raja on three occasions. Now, he is doing the same for Chidambaram,” said the BJP leader.
He added that the issue of black money stacked in foreign banks, too, would be raised during the course of Advani’s yatra. “Manmohan Singh’s government has not done anything substantial to bring this money back to the country.”
Prasad also refuted the claim of senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh that BJP had promised Anna Hazare to make him its candidate in the next presidential elections.
Faced with a question on Gujarat CM Narendra Modi, whose pictures are missing from the posters and banners put by the BJP in run up to the launch of Advani’s yatra, the BJP spokesperson played down the issue. “The yatra would be received by the chief minister concerned of BJP-ruled state,” he said.
