Anna Hazare’s victory represent victory of India: Advani

KANNUR: On Saturday L.K. Advani senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s decision to concede the demand for a joint panel to draft an effective Lokpal Bill and its assurance that the Bill would be introduced in the monsoon session of Parliament following the campaign launched by social activist Anna Hazare against corruption represented a victory of the people of India.

During addressing of an election rally of BJP on Saturday, Mr. Advani compared the UPA government’s decision to form the joint panel to draft the Lokpal Bill to its earlier decision to constitute a Joint Parliamentary Committee to inquire into the 2G spectrum corruption scandal.

In both the cases, the UPA government initially rejected the demands and later conceded under pressure, he said adding that both represented the victory of the people of the country.

Advani said referring to the campaign launched by Anna Hazare, “April 9 will remain significant in the history of the country as on this day the people’s campaign against corruption had yielded positive results.”

He said that as a political activist who had participated in every single Parliament election since 1952 and as a person with an insider view of all the government’s at the Centre beginning with the government led by Jawaharlal Nehru, he could say with certainty that the government led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was the most corrupt.

PM had failed as an economist, the BJP leader said the Prime Minister was not able to contain price rise.

He said, during the six-year rule of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) headed by Atal Behari Vajpayee, prices were kept under control in spite of financial constraints forced upon the country following economic sanctions in the wake of Pokhran-II. The NDA rule was not marred by cases of corruption and scandals, he added.

He also claimed that, Dr. Singh was presiding over a government that was the most corrupt one since Independence. People should not forget how the first UPA government had encountered the situation when it was forced to seek a confidence vote in Parliament after the Left parties withdrew their support in protest against the government’s decision to sign the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal in 2008.