Govt making allies scapegoat of corruption: Advani

Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani on Saturday accused the government of trying to make coalition partners a scapegoat of corruption for which the government as a whole is responsible. He also attacked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over rising inflation and said that price rise is continuing unabated even though "we have supposedly an economic expert" at the helm of affairs.

Taking a dig at the prime minister for raising the issue of coalition politics while dealing with corruption in the United Progressive Alliance government, he said, "Coalition imposes restriction in so far as policy matters are concerned, not in terms of integrity."

...

"There is an attempt to make coalition partners a scapegoat of corruption for which the whole government is responsible," he charged.

"It is only a matter of policy that alliance imposes restrictions, not in matters of integrity. There are no compulsions of coalition dharma," he said.

Maintaining that no single party can come to Centre at its own, Advani said there are bound to be coalitions. "If elections take place in 2014 or earlier, it will be a coalition government," he said.

To a question about choosing coalition partners, the BJP leader admitted that, "In so far as standard of integrity are concerned, the kind of integrity you can impose on your party, you cannot impose on your allies."

He said the party will be more careful in selecting partners in the future and any shortcomings will be dealt with in this regard.

Advani said the series of scams facing the government is "not just an ally affair and senior functionaries of the Congress, who are in government, are also responsible, and whose roles need to be investigated."

"The shameless manner in which the whistleblowers in the cash-for-vote scam have been put behind bars and the culpability of the beneficiaries of this scam have not been investigated in spite of reprimand by the Supreme Court which shows the real face of this government," he said.

"This confirms once again that the present UPA government is the most corrupt since Independence which even failed the Indian democracy," Advani said. He said the country is today in a state of drift.

"Series of scams, scandals and massive corruption have become the defining feature of the government headed by Manmohan Singh. There is complete loss of face, indecision and lack of credibility," he said.

Advani said there is a "virtual civil war" among senior ministers and those who have committed massive irregularities and caused serious loss of public revenue "are being defended and protected in the most shameful manner."

Talking about rising inflation, he said, "The worst consequence of UPA government for the common man has been inflation."

He said even though UPA came to power in the name of common man, it had done little to address their concerns about price rise.

"Inflation continues to rub salt over the wounds of the common man. Corruption only fuels inflation and causes further price rise. Inflation is because of gross mismanagement of food economy of the country and rampant corruption in the affairs of the UPA government," Advani said.