UPA-II mirrors rule of Bahadur Shah Zafar: BJP

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday alleged that the UPA-II government's performance at the end of its fourth anniversary has waned so much, that it "mirrored the rule" of last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar.

"The UPA government's performance has become so miserable that it mirrors the rule of the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar," BJP national general secretary Rajiv Pratap Rudy told mediapersons in Patna.

"Fortunes of the Congress-led government at the Centre has waned and its unpopularity has grown so much in the eyes of the people that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh may prove to be the last Congress PM like Bahadur Shah Zafar had proved to be the last of the Mughal dynasty," he said.

"The UPA-II has turned out to be a black chapter even in the history of Congress governments since Independence," Rudy said and highlighted various scams, corruption charges against ministers and other failures of the incumbent government during the past four years.

"The Congress-led government has perpetrated unimaginable miseries on the people by presiding over scams and corruption, besides it has failed the country on economic and foreign policies, so much so that the country's freedom is at stake," he observed.

"India is independent, but our foreign and economic policies have been compromised by the UPA government as if we are colonies (of foreign countries)...even to the people, true freedom appears to elude them despite living in a free country," Rudy said lambasting the performance of the Congress-led government on all fronts.

Taking potshots at the Congress leadership, the senior BJP leader said that there were two centres of power in the UPA government -- Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh -- and regretted that the incumbent government has failed to lead the country in the right direction due to a divided leadership.

Recalling the performance of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government, Rudy claimed that it had left behind a surplus coffer and a robust economy, but the UPA government has not only failed to sustain the economy, industrial production has also declined to one per cent -- the lowest in past 30 years, as a 'policy paralysis' has gripped the Manmohan Singh government.

There has been sharp increase in unemployment due to declining industrial production even as ever rising food inflation and price rise has hurt the masses, he said.

Charging the UPA government with brazenly using the Central Bureau of Investigation to keep allies together and force them to support it, Rudy said the Congress-led government will not succeed in its design and the government may go even earlier than being predicted in political circles.

BJP was ready for general elections or mid-term polls, he said and exuded confidence that it will be able to oust the UPA government from power.

On Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's projection as BJP's prime ministerial candidate, Rudy said the party's parliamentary board will take a call on it.

"Whatever formulation the BJP leadership decides to go with in the next general elections, will be made public in due course of time," he said.

Commenting on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's objection to Narendra Modi being projected as BJP's prime ministerial candidate and harbouring bad blood towards the latter, so much so to ban his visit to the state for electioneering, the BJP leader said there was no such ban on the Gujarat chief minister for whatsoever reasons.

Modi may visit Bihar whenever required or requested by the party's state unit, he said.

On his take on outcome of the Maharajganj Lok Sabha bye-election scheduled for June 2, Rudy claimed that the Janata Dal-United candidate P K Shahi will win it hands down.

Shahi's victory from Maharajganj parliamentary seat was a foregone conclusion as the two NDA allies -- JD-U and BJP -- were working hard for his success, he added.