UPA government is in ICU, says Advani

Criticising the crisis-ridden UPA government, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and senior BJP leader LK Advani has said that the Congress-led dispensation was "in a state of paralysis".

Speaking at a function organised by a financial daily in Mumbai on Saturday, Advani said, "In my six decades in national politics, I have never come across a government that has remained in a state of paralysis for so long a time, due to its own internal contradictions."

"The UPA government is in ICU and how it will rescue itself is something that I don't know. I am not a doctor," he said.

On the inflation rate which has touched a 13-year high of 11.05 per cent, Advani said "people expected better management of the nation's economy from Manmohan Singh, who is known to be a distinguished economist".

Continuing his attack on the government, the BJP leader said, "It was known right from the beginning that the Congress and  the CPI(M)-led Left parties don't share any common ground on economic and foreign policies. Yet they came together on the bogus claim of unity of 'secular forces'... The real aim of the two parties was to keep the BJP out."

Giving the example of the current impasse between the two parties over the Indo-US nuclear deal in support of his views, Advani said that the government has pushed itself into a corner over the deal.

"If the government goes ahead with the operationalisation of the nuclear deal, the Communists will withdraw their support and the government will fall," he said, adding, "if the Congress-led coalition again chooses to retreat the prime minister's credibility and authority, which were never very high, will have all but evaporated".