PM slams Advani, releases Congress manifesto

“Whether Advani is a strong man or a weak, let the records speak for themselves,” said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, hitting hard on the former NDA home minister and the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate L K Advani, accusing him of dividing people on the communal lines.

Releasing the Congress election manifesto for 2009 on Tuesday, Manmohan Singh along with party president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi lashed out at the Opposition Leader dubbing him an ‘opportunist’ whose only contribution (?) to the society was demolition of Babri mosque in Ayodhya.

Advani, who is widely perceived as a Hindu hardliner, is in fact opportunist enough, Singh said. When he went to Pakistan, he suddenly discovered new virtues in Mohammad Ali Jinnah. He had to pay the price for it—his party disowned him, his masters in RSS and many of his colleagues disowned him.

'What has he done to the contribution of national welfare?' the Prime Minister questioned, and recalled when he was the home minister during NDA rule, terrorists attacked on Parliament, Red Fort was attacked, an Indian Airlines plane was hijacked and the hijackers were rewarded by releasing terrorists.

After the Parliament attack, troops were mobilised on the border on a large scale, but were rolled back later without getting any results. These are the records of Advani, Singh said.
‘He was the home minister who presided over the massacre (of innocents) in Gujarat. This country must reflect if he is fit to hold the post of prime minister.’

In politics all adversaries are worth enough whether BJP or the Third Front should be taken seriously, the Prime Minister said, but we are ready to face both right as well as the Left.

He said that our main thrust is to stop communal forces from succeeding to power. “Communalism is the greatest challenge. If we do not roll back communal forces, India’s unity, integrity and prosperity will be in danger.”

"When I look at the opportunities, I am convinced that this country can move forward on road to faster growth", he said, adding the benefits of developments can be passed on to each sections of society particularly scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and minorities.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi projected Manmohan Singh as the next prime minister of the country, saying there could be many candidates for the post but no one stands in front of him.

“He has both experience and competence,” Gandhi said, and appealed to the people to vote for the Congress for work the UPA has done in last five years.