Advani rubs it in: U-turn on deal shows Manmohan weakest PM, UPA weakest ever

In a strongly worded statement, Advani said that “the extraordinary combination of ineptitude, arrogance, immaturity and lack of conviction that Dr Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi have displayed in the past three months shows that the thoroughly opportunist alliance that is the UPA is unfit to govern India. The episode also confirms our party’s evaluation that Dr Manmohan Singh is the weakest Prime Minister India has had.”

Advani also said that the UPA Government was at its weakest point now since its inception in May 2004. “From now onwards, its journey can only be downhill,” he said. He added that after keeping the nation on tenterhooks for over three months and precipitating the worst ever political crisis for his own government because of his “intransigent stand over the Indo-US nuclear deal, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has suddenly done a U-turn.”

Recalling the PM’s earlier stand, Advani said the U-turn marks the “end of whatever little legitimacy he had in the high office he occupies.” He said the government did not pay heed to the criticism of the deal “by the NDA and a majority in Parliament, nor widespread criticism from the community of scientists, security experts and foreign policy professionals.”

He added: “If Dr Singh and Sonia Gandhi have suddenly backtracked, they have done it not out of any principles, but purely due to a rude realisation that going ahead with the deal would sink the government. Nevertheless, both of them owe an explanation to the nation as to why they caused virtual paralysis of their own government for the past three months.”

Meanwhile, the RSS also came down heavily on Singh’s statement dubbing it a “classic case of chickening out under pressure” after calling the opponents of the deal enemies of the nation. “Who is now the enemy of the nation? Or is it that the lure of power is so strong that the Congress has decided to join hands with the nation’s enemies and shelve the deal altogether?” an editorial in RSS mouthpiece Organiser said. “The Congress has given in to the Left blackmail,” it said.