New Delhi: Senior BJP leader L K Advani on Saturday said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's claim that UPA's
victory in 2009 polls absolved his government of all charges
in cash-for-votes scam would mean Rajiv Gandhi was guilty in
Bofors case as he had lost the subsequent 1989 elections.
Describing Singh's defence of UPA in Parliament in the
wake of Wikileaks expose on cash-for-votes scam of 2008 as "a
frantic but futile effort to whitewash" the scandal, Advani
wondered how an electoral win could absolve the victor of all
the charges.
"Since when has an election victory come to be regarded
as exoneration of crimes committed by the victor before his
election? Does the Prime Minister realise the serious
implications of this absurd thesis," the BJP leader said in
his latest blog post.
He maintained that if one were to go by this
"preposterous thesis", then Gandhi- who was accused in the
Bofors gun pay-offs case and subsequently lost the elections
in 1989- too should be held guilty.
"After this new thesis put forth by Dr Manmohan Singh
to claim that the people of India have endorsed his brazen
bribery shenanigans, does he realise that by the same logic
the 1989 verdict of the Lok Sabha would mean that the Indian
electorate had pronounced Rajiv Gandhi guilty in the Bofors
scandal?" Advani said.
The BJP Parliamentary Party Chief insisted that the
WikiLeaks revelations have "gravely undermined" Singh's
position in national politics.
In a pointed attack against the Prime Minister, Advani
stated that WikiLeaks have revelead how Singh was isolated in
his own government on issues like talks with Pakistan. The
cabals claim that Singh and his then National Security Advisor
M K Narayanan did not agree on this issue.
"I believe that if on issues related with terrorism,
like Pakistan and J&K, evaluation were to be made of Indian
public opinion, Dr Manmohan Singh would be discovered
isolated not only in his own Government but even among the
people," Advani said on his blog.
The senior BJP leader also referred to the cables in
WikiLeaks which expose how a Congress leader's aide showed two
cash chests containing money to be paid to MPs to buy them off
for the trust vote. He concurs with some reports that this is
a Wikibomb which has put the Congress-led government in a
spot.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, March 19, 2011, 21:26