Bharatiya Janata Party chief Lal Kishenchand Advani on Tuesday described Dr Manmohan Singh as a weak prime minister.
Speaking at a press conference following a National Demoratic Alliance meeting, where the alliance released a report card of the United Progressive Alliance government's one year in office, Advani said Dr Singh will never succeed as prime minister.
Advani charged the government with denigrating constitutional institutions and questioned its policies on internal security.
"In the one year it has been in power, important, vital constitutional institutions have been devalued and denigrated. Look at the prime minister, how his office has been devalued," Advani said.
"In most of the economic policies, the principal party in the government and the principal allies are at loggerheads and fight against each other. What kind of coalition is it?" he said.
To a question, Advani said, "I praise the prime minister as a person. He is a good person, but he is a weak prime minister."
Referring to Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav's remarks against the Election Commission, Advani said: "I should mention the remarks made by a Union minister against the Election Commission. Had a minister in the Vajpayee government spoken of the Election Commission in such a manner, he would have been out of the government the very next day," he said.
When Advani was asked how the NDA could criticise the UPA government for the internal security situation when the attack on Parliament, the attack on the Jammu and Kashmir assembly, the terrorist strike at the Akshardham temple and the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane all happened when NDA was in power, he said: "You should remember that it was the initiative of the Vajpayee government that forced Pakistan to say that it would not allow terrorists to use its soil for attacks against India. Something that we could not have imagined before," he said.
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Advani said while the prime minister gave his government six marks out of 10, the Leftists gave the government zero.
On the dissolution of the Bihar assembly, Advani said the matter will be taken to the court.
