Dubbing it as "an unnecessary and extra-constitutional body", leader of opposition Lal Kishenchand Advani Wednesday demanded disbanding the National Advisory Council, alleging it was created to give "powers without any accountability" to the Congress president.
"The Bharatiya Janata Party was always of the view that the NAC is an unnecessary and extra-constitutional body created solely to provide a cover to Congress president (Sonia Gandhi) to exercise power without any accountability in the Union government," the BJP leader told reporters before starting on the 15th day of his 'Bharat Suraksha Yatra in Jabalpur.
Alleging that NAC "downgraded" the high constitutional office of prime minister, he asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to disband it since it was the duty of the PM's office to review and monitor functioning of the government.
On the office-of-profit issue, Advani said the United Progressive Alliance government should take people into confidence on the proposed legislation.
"The opposition can only make its views known on the office-of-profit after the government shares with us its thinking on the proposed legislation, planned to be introduced during second half of the Budget session from May 10," he added.
The proposed legislation should not undermine the rationale and logic evolved by the makers of the Constitution in Articles 102 and 103, the BJP leader said.
"The government should not take the easy way out by simply exempting a long list of offices from the category of offices of profit and thereby release them from purview of the constitutional provisions attracting disqualifications," the former BJP president said.