'Advani thinks he can do an Obama in India'

"He has assumed he will do an Obama in India". That was the sarcastic comment of the AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh on L K Advani's demand that Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh should engage in a TV debate with him, along the lines of the debate which take place in the United States, between Presidential hopefuls.

Calling it a political gimmick, Singh said that the Prime Minister-in-waiting L K Advani wants to do an Obama through online campaigning when the facts are that the registration of people supporting Advani on his website 'Advani for PM' is a mere 3100 while the site "friends for Advani" on Orkut has not crossed 250 supporters. He said in such a situation, Advani has now asked for a national televised debate when he is not getting support anywhere else.

"But maybe we should call his bluff as he can be nailed on a large number of issues," said the AICC general secretary, who is almost always candid in his views and does not shirk from reacting on views and situations, even if they are inconvenient for the party.

Union I&B Minister Anand Sharma was equally caustic about Advani saying he was a "man in  hurry", who was in a hurry to occupy the chair of the Prime Minister but added, "it is the good fortune of the country that he can never be fortunate enough to become the Prime Minister of the country".

Anand Sharma said that maybe Advani is forgetting that India is part of the parliamentary system and not the presidential system of the United States where two hopefuls battle it out through debates and score points off each other. He said this is a multi-party system where the debates and discussions go on constantly and political parties debate each other on issues all the time.

Both Anand Sharma and Digvijay Singh were of the view that in Parliament debates have been held on a large number of issues ranging from communalism, nuclear deal, motion of thanks to the president's address and any raging issue of the day and both Dr Manmohan Singh and L.K.Advani have taken part in these debates over the last five years.

"So where is the need for one more debate and what is the political message that Advaniji wants to send," said Sharma who was reacting sharply on the issue of whether Advani wants to once again press for a presidential form of government as the BJP has been doing in the past.

Digvijay Singh said there are a large number of other Prime Ministerial hopefuls, many of them from the Third Front, so maybe Advani should ask for a debate with those leaders also.

"Why should such a debate be confined to only Dr Singh and Advani", he asked?

With the election heat and dust building up all over the country, congress and BJP leaders are now fully involved in hitting out at each other, never mind what the system, presidential or parliamentary democracy.