Thiruvananthapuram: BJP leader L K Advani
on Saturday accused the government of trying to make coalition
partners a scapegoat of corruption for which the government as
a whole is responsible.
He also attacked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over
rising inflation and said that price rise is continuing
unabated even though "we have supposedly an economic expert"
at the helm of affairs.
Taking a dig at the Prime Minister for raising the issue
of coalition politics while dealing with corruption in the UPA
Government, he said, "Coalition imposes restriction in so far
as policy matters are concerned, not in terms of integrity".
"There is an attempt to make coalition partners a
scapegoat of corruption for which the whole government is
responsible," he charged.
"It is only a matter of policy that alliance imposes
restrictions, not in matters of integrity. There are no
compulsions of coalition dharma," he said.
Maintaining that no single party can come to centre at
its own, Advani said there are bound to be coalitions.
"If elections take place in 2014 or earlier, it will be a
coalition government," he said.
To a question about choosing coalition partners, the BJP
leader admitted that, "In so far as standard of integrity are
concerned, the kind of integrity you can impose on your party,
you cannot impose on your allies."
He said the party will be more careful in selecting
partners in the future and any shortcomings will be dealt with
in this regard.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, October 29, 2011, 13:41