National

Worry about yourself: BJP

NEW DELHI: The BJP here on Saturday told the Congress that it should worry about its own failures rather than make critical comments about the BJP.

Reacting to criticism by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi at the All-India Congress Committee session here, party spokesman Ravishankar Prasad said the adverse comments were meant to divert the people’s attention away from the UPA’s “litany of failures.”

Ms. Gandhi had attacked the BJP for being “stubbornly uncooperative” in Parliament; for being “obstructionist” and not maintaining the dignity and decorum of Parliament; and for not cooperating with the government on matters of national interest unlike the Congress when it was in the opposition.

She also said: “No words are strong enough to condemn the BJP’s attacks on our Prime Minister and our party.” She criticised the party for ‘going beyond all reasonable limits’ in ‘preventing’ debates on important issues.

The Prime Minister said there were many “ups and downs” in foreign policy during the tenure of the Vajpayee government – the Agra Summit fiasco, the Lahore bus ride for peace, and then the Kargil war.

Mr. Prasad said the AICC should have been used by the Congress to introspect on its ‘many failures’ and on the ‘divisions’ within the UPA and its supporting partners.

He talked about the Prime Minister and Ms. Gandhi’s “deafening silence” on Nandigram.

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