PM is like the CEO, Sonia is the real owner: BJP

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday came down heavily on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, saying that he cannot cite his personal honesty when his government has been hit by a series of scams.

"The prime minister has presided over the most corrupt government in the country since independence. He cannot cry about his honesty," BJP spokesperson Ravishankar Prasad said in a reply to a question on what the party had to say about the honesty of the prime minister.

"The people of the country will decide on the basis of what has been done by him while presiding over the government hit by scams such as 2G, Commonwealth Games, Adarsh housing society and the ISRO deal," Prasad said.

"The prime minister is working like the CEO of a company whose owners are not taking any responsibility. By owners I mean Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. He is leading a rudderless ship," he said.

The BJP leader said in the present government "the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing as on one side government ministers including Pranab Mukherjee give a red carpet welcome to Ramdev, while Home Minister P Chidambaram orders forceful eviction of him and his supporters from Ramlila Maidan."

Prasad announced that the BJP will launch a nationwide agitation against the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance from June 23 to June 26 to protest the government's action of evicting the yoga guru and his supporters from Ramlila Maidan where they were sitting on a fast.

"As scams after scams are coming out of the closet and the fight against corruption is being waged, the repressive character of this government is increasingly evident," he said.

"See the double standards of this government. It allowed anti-national forces like Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Gilani to take out a rally against India in the national capital, while it forcefully evicted women, children and saints protesting peacefully at Ramdev's agitation site," Prasad said.

Rahul Gandhi sat on dharna in Bhatta-Parsaul village when the Uttar Pradesh government took action against farmers there. However, he is not saying anything about the police action at Ramlila Maidan, he said.

"Ramdev is not demanding anything for himself. He has taken up the fast for the nation. The government should not be so egotistical in dealing with him," he said.

"The BJP strongly believes that this government will not take any credible action on bringing back black money stashed in foreign banks as its own people will be exposed," Prasad alleged.

Speaking about the Congress's allegations that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and BJP were behind the anti-corruption agitation going on in the country, Prasad said, "This is an expired medicine. Indira Gandhi had in the 70s alleged that Jayprakash Narayan and Acharya Kriplani were fronts of RSS and during the Bofors controversy Rajiv Gandhi's camp had said that V P Singh was working at the RSS's behest."