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MMS’ attack on Advani was
bristling, personal, and it hurt
WSN Network
 NEW DELHI:
Personal
attacks on L K Advani, references to Godhra, attack on Parliament
and other black marks from BJP regime, defence of his regime's
policies, self-praise for liberalisation policies and memories of
his humble background, PM Manmohan Singh's speech was a well-woven
tapestry of sharpnels, petals and flourishes that the din
inParliament did not allow him to read. He placed the speech in the
Lok Sabha, choosing not to insist upon reading it.
Hitting out at
BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate L K Advani for levelling charges
of incompetence against him, Manmohan Singh said Advani should do
some "introspection" over his role when Gujarat was burning and
during the Kandahar hijack crisis. It was not expected of PM on such
an
occasion to
refer to 1984 massacre of Sikhs, and he did not. Replying to the
debate on the trust vote in the Lok Sabha, he also asked "our
friends" in the Left front to ponder over the company they were
forced to keep because of the "miscalculations" by "their general
secretary", an apparent reference to CPI-M General Secretary Prakash
Karat.
The prime
minister tabled his speech after he started to speak amid uproarious
scenes and slogan shouting by the Opposition who demanded his
resignation over the bribery issue.
 Manmohan Singh
also wanted to know whether the nation can forgive a person who
"single handedly provided the inspiration for the destruction of the
Babri Masjid with all the terrible consequences that followed". When
the debate started, he had cared to quote a couplet to underline his
Sikh credentials, but when he ended, his speech did contain babri
refernce but not Operation Bluestar. Manmohan Singh noted that the
BJP leader had used "abusive" adjectives to describe his performance
like "weakest PM", "nikamma (incompetent) PM" and of having devalued
the office of PM.
At his (Advani's)
ripe old age, I do not expect Advani to change his thinking. But for
his sake and
India's
sake, I urge him to change his astrologers so that he gets more
accurate predictions of things to come", he said. "Can a nation
approve the conduct of a home minister who was sleeping while
Gujarat was burning leading to the loss of thousandsof innocent
lives ? asked Singh. In a no-holds barred onslaught atthe beginning
of his speech, the prime minister said Advani had to "atone for his
sins" suddenly decided to visit Pakistan and there he discovered the
"new virtues" in Jinnah. Singh noted that Advani's own party and
"his mentors" in the RSS disowned him on this issue.
23
July, 2008
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