The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Congress has insulted Manmohan: Venkaiah

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Saturday, Apr 18, 2009
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Congress has insulted Manmohan: Venkaiah

Special Correspondent

‘UPA attacking BJP leaders to cover up its failures’

‘Prime Minister not invited to campaign for party’
‘Congress has conceded defeat before polling’

BANGALORE: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday accused the Congress of insulting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by not inviting him to campaign for the party for the Lok Sabha elections.

‘First time’

“This is the first time in India’s poll history that a phase of polling has passed off without active campaigning by the Prime Minister,” senior BJP leader M. Venkaiah Naidu remarked at a press conference here. Mr. Naidu said this amounted to devaluing the Prime Minister. He should be a model for others by leading the campaign.

‘Conceded defeat’

Referring to the reported remarks of the Prime Minister and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee that they may seek support from the Left parties after the polls, Mr. Naidu said these remarks showed that the Congress had conceded defeat even before polling.

He said the Congress seemed to be feeling as if it were in the Opposition going by the way it was constantly attacking the BJP.

Accusing the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance of failing on all fronts, he said it had now launched a personal attack on BJP leaders to cover up its failures.

“The Congress, which has no performance to its credit, is so scared of the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, L.K. Advani, that he might even be appearing in the dreams of its leaders. This is why Congress leaders have launched an attack against him,” he said.

Debate sought

He suggested that instead of such personal attacks, the Congress should enter into a debate with the BJP to decide who is a weaker leader (Dr. Manmohan Singh or Mr. Advani) on the basis of capacity and competence.

He said the UPA Government was a poor comparison to the NDA Government with respect to various issues ranging from the nuclear test to controlling prices or security.

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