New Delhi: As the UPA got down to celebrating its fourth anniversary, the BJP on Wednesday trained its guns on Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and said he was neither leader of his party nor the country.
“For a coalition government, there is a need for a special leadership. I regret to say that in UPA Dr Manmohan Singh is the prime minister but not leader. He is neither leader of his party nor the country,” BJP leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj told the media here.
She said the UPA leadership was divided. “In the cabinet, UPA allies sit with the prime minister but for any solution to their problems they look towards the UPA chairperson (Sonia Gandhi).”
There now seemed to be one-upmanship between the Congress party and the government as well, she added.
“This divided leadership is leading to uncertainty in the country. This is political failure,” she said.
Discussing the economic failures of the United Progressive Alliance government, Mrs Swaraj said: “When the NDA had come to power, we had inherited a crumbling economy. But when we left the government, we gave them a booming economy.”
The BJP leader said the UPA-II had crossed all limits as far as corruption was concerned. “There was not so much corruption in UPA-I. One scandal leads to the other. The amounts are mind-boggling.”
Her colleague Arun Jaitley, leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, said the UPA’s fourth anniversary was being celebrated in a negative and pessimistic environment.
“The propaganda is not being accepted by the country. All opinion polls point to the fact that the Congress and UPA are losing their popularity fast.
“Never in history has the prime minister’s post been so dimunitive.”
With the elections only months away, the UPA-II government will present a final report card to mark its fourth anniversary.
Referring to Congress No: 2 Rahul Gandhi, the BJP leaders said for the future, the cadres look at the “heir apparent of the Congress party’s first family and not the Prime Minister.
“The legitimacy of the office of the Prime Minister has been denuded. Today, the PM is synonymous with indecision, inability and silence. Never in history has the institution of the Prime Minister been at the receiving end of such wit, sarcasm and ridicule,” the BJP leaders said.
Jaitley said the BJP is confident that Lok Sabha election results will be in its favour as the “Third Front does not exist. It is a failed idea.”
On the party’s prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 LS elections, Ms Swaraj said the BJP Parliamentary Board will decide who will be the face of the party at an appropriate time after consultations with the NDA partners.
Mr Jaitley said the BJP will continue to expose the “popular disappointment” with the UPA and organise a May 27-June 3 nationwide ‘jail bharo andolan’. (Agencies)