Advani walks the tight rope in Bengaluru

Veteran Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani on Sunday walked a tight rope on Sunday while addressing his rally in Bengaluru as part of his Jan Chetna Yatra amidst a heavy downpour.

Though Advani did not name any of the tainted ministers in Karnataka, he reiterated that the BJP would not tolerate any sort of corruption.

"I had said in April that corruption will be fought, but I would not tolerate it in my own party. We have been strict where corruption is concerned. We acted immediately when the Lokayukta report on illegal mining was out." -- That was the extent to which the veteran leader addressed the corruption issue in Karnataka.

Advani's speech largely trained guns on the United Progressive Alliance government.

"I had a lot of respect for Manmohan Singh when he was an official. However, today I don't respect him, as he runs the most corrupt government ever. This government has been responsible for the biggest scams the nation has seen. The 2G scam has been the biggest. Then there is CWG and Adarsh and for each

of these scams, the UPA has been responsible."

"While these are the major issues, what I was most pained by is the nuclear deal. We entered into a deal with a country which looked down upon us. Despite the CPI-M pulling out of the government they still went ahead with the deal."

"In fact to save their government they flaunted corruption to such an extent that it led to the cash-for-votes scam. However, our party led by example and despite three of my MPs being approached they refused to sell out."

"I would also like to point the black money issue here. When the National Democratic Alliance was in power, we asked the Swiss Bank many times for details. However, we never got them. Today, the rules are different. I don't see why the UPA cannot bring that money back. Despite me writing to the prime minister thrice, he has not acted on it."

"I am pained by this and hence decided to set out on a yatra. This yatra is aimed at waking the people up against corruption. I wish the people of India realises the gravity of the situation."