PM compromises day after day: Advani reply on Jinnah remark

Hitting back at the Prime Minister for his remarks against him, BJP leader L K Advani has charged Manmohan Singh with 8216;8216;compromisi...

Hitting back at the Prime Minister for his remarks against him, BJP leader L K Advani has charged Manmohan Singh with 8216;8216;compromising day after day only to stick on to office8217;8217; while he himself, by comparison, gave up his job to stand by his views on Jinnah.

The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha appeared to hint in an interview to Karan Thapar for CNN-IBN8217;s Devil8217;s Advocate programme that he would be the party8217;s prime ministerial candidate in the next elections.

On the PM referring to his Pakistan visit and his statement on Jinnah at the February 1 press conference, Advani said, 8216;8216;There are situations where standing by what you believe in rather than trying only to stick on to office is a manifestation of strength, not weakness. 8216;8216;Because Manmohan Singh brought this up, I would say the PM has been compromising day after day only to stick on to office,8217;8217; he said.

Rejecting Advani8217;s earlier charge that he was the 8216;8216;weakest8217;8217; PM, Singh had said, 8216;8216;Whether I am the weakest prime minister or not should be judged by my actions8230; I am not a leader of a political party like Advani was. How strong was Advani? He went to Karachi and paid homage at the mazar of Jinnah. The RSS did not like it and where was Advani as a result of that?8217;8217;

Asked whether he considered not changing his position on Jinnah a strength, Advani said, 8216;8216;I think so.8217;8217; When reminded that he had had to lose the party presidentship as a consequence, he said, 8216;8216;It doesn8217;t matter. I have always believed that in my long political career, there was an earlier occasion when I was charged with hawala and I not only resigned from Parliament but also declared that I would not contest for Parliament again unless I was judiciously exonerated from the charge.8217;8217;

On Bihar, he said that while the attempt so far had been to project former Bihar governor Buta Singh as the 8216;8216;fall guy8217;8217;, Manmohan Singh was now maintaining that the Cabinet decision had not been wrong, even quoting the dissenting views in the Supreme Court judgment in his support.

Maintaining that the pronouncements in the Bommai judgment 8216;8216;saved the President from any accusation of bad faith8217;8217;, the Leader of the Opposition said it was a 8216;8216;mistake8217;8217; on Kalam8217;s part to have agreed to the dissolution of the Bihar Assembly.