NEW DELHI, 19 May 2005 — As the United Progressive Allaince (UPA) government completes one year in office, leader of opposition L.K. Advani yesterday accused it was driven by the agenda of “political vendetta”.
Advani, who was addressing the Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) plenary session here, warned Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that political vindictiveness would not do any good to the country’s economical growth.
“The NDA (opposition National Democratic Alliance) is being constantly run down. Such actions in our political culture does not augur well for either our democracy or four our economy.”
“What I am particularly concerned about is that this political ‘illiberalism’ is now leading the government to a policy of vindictiveness,” Advani said, adding that he had praised Manmohan as a person on several occasions.
According to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president, the government’s decision to order a federal probe into the alleged irregularities of disinvestments of the state-owned Centaur hotels was “politically motivated”. The center had ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the sale of the hotels after a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report pointed out irregularities in the deals.
“Don’t proceed on this path of vendetta. It will bite you. The barking communists may not bite, but the action they and some others are pressurising you to take will certainly bite you,” Advani said.
Advani also alleged that the Congress-led government had adopted “a political strategy to de-emphasize, denigrate and discredit” every achievement of the previous government led by Atal Behari Vajpayee. — Additional input from Indo-Asian News Service
