Cong ridicules Advani's criticism of prime minister

Congress on Friday ridiculed L K Advani over his reiteration that Manmohan Singh is the weakest Prime Minister asking the Bharatiya Janata Party leader and his party to "bring some novelty at least in the phraseology".

"Neither the wine is new nor the bottle is new. Neither the phrase is new nor the content. It is time Advani and BJP at least start getting innovative and come out with new usages, new thoughts," party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said.

He added, "These are old words that were used (during Lok Sabha elections) in 2004 and 2009 and see what happened."

Linking Advani's attack on Singh to the former's prime ministerial ambitions, Singhvi said, "If wishes were horses, all of us would fly. If mere use of words could have led to desired changes, we all would have been living on clouds and in the dreamland."

During his anti-corruption 'yatra' in Kolkata and Ranchi, Advani defended his oft-repeated criticism of Singh being the "weakest" prime minister, saying he was only calling "a spade a spade".

"The Prime Minister claims he is hurt because I called him the weakest prime minister in living memory. If calling a spade a spade is improper, I plead guilty," Advani said, two days after the prime minister spoke of how the BJP leader's attacks appeared "intemperate" and that he should "avoid harsh words" in his criticism.

"But it is not me, it is the Supreme Court that has observed that the 2G scam could have been avoided and the estimated Rs 1.76 lakh crore loss to the exchequer saved had Manmohan Singh acted", Advani told reporters in Kolkata during his yatra that passed through West Bengal.