The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday accused Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of failing to act on corruption cases, saying it was the cause of people's angry reactions and huge support to Anna Hazare's campaign for an effective Lokpal bill.
Speaking at a CII organised function in New Delhi, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley said the country had a lot of hope from Singh but he had "let down the people".
"I attribute what has happened in the last few days (Hazare's agitation) to his (Singh's) failure. To condone it (corruption cases) and to pretend that nothing has happened has actually led to this kind of an angry reaction amongst the average Indian," the BJP leader said.
"India had a great hope, particularly in the present prime minister... that being a relatively cleaner politician, he would go and enforce this (laws against corruption)," he said.
He insisted that this image of India being corrupt is a "great disincentive" to investment in the country and also to the image of popular politics here.
The BJP leader, however, did not name Hazare or the agitation.
He culled out an example from the just-concluded Lokpal bill agitation where some activists had written messages on their hand against politicians.
"It is a very serious sign if somebody writes on his arm that every political person in this country is a thief," he said.
The senior BJP leader maintained that finding faults with the drafting of the Lokpal bill was not the main issue as these could be negotiated.
"One has to absorb the larger political message, which is that people are exasperated with the kind of situation prevailing in India's public life and governance. Unless he (PM) gets a message and starts acting, we probably have a greater loss of faith of the popular perception of India in the kind of governance and parliamentary democracy that we have here," Jaitley said.
BJP had come out in support of Hazare's agitation for a strong and effective Lokpal bill and insisted that though it may not agree with all the demands of the activists, it supported the "essence of these demands".
Jaitley said there was a need to improve the quality of politics in India and build legitimate systems to do so.
"You cannot allow corruption to go unpunished or have a partisan approach to it," he said. He insisted that "political obstructionism" in Parliament had actually achieved more than what several rounds of debates on 2G spectrum allocation could not.
"Without it A Raja would still be the telecom minister today," Jaitley said.