Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

UPA performance ‘dismal’: Advani

— Photo: P.V. Sivakumar

STAYING CONNECTED: L.K. Advani, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, is handed a cell phone by Bandaru Dattatreya, State BJP president, while making a stop-over in Hyderabad on Sunday en route to Karnataka.

HYDERABAD: Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha L.K. Advani has said that the contrast between the manner in which the previous Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government functioned for six years and the one in which Manmohan Singh’s government has been functioning for four years will be an issue in the next general elections.

Mr. Advani, however, did not foresee the scope for early elections to the Lok Sabha claiming that the “possibility has vanished” after the trends in Karnataka elections favoured the BJP.

Speaking to reporters on here on Saturday during a stopover en route to Karnataka for participating in election campaign, Mr. Advani attacked the UPA government for its “dismal performance” in infrastructure development, checking price rise, dealing with terrorism and foreign policy issues related to neighbouring countries. The Congress sought votes in the name of ‘Aam Admi’ (common man) in the last elections, but the “betrayal of common man is glaringly evident” in its failure to check skyrocketing prices of essentials.

The Supreme Court indicted the Centre for failing to check illegal immigration and in fact, accused it of “encouraging aggression on the country.” The National Security Advisor himself had admitted that the security agencies were lax. Since the source of terrorism was out of the country, there was need for exchange of information between the Central and State agencies. “But there was no such information to Rajasthan government where blasts took place at Ajmer followed by the recent incident in Jaipur,” he said.

He expressed happiness over the statement by Pakistan’s new Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani who expressed willingness to hand over Dawood Ibrahim to India if proof of his guilt was furnished. “This is the first time they (Pakistan) admitted that Dawood is in Pakistan. There are formidable cases like Interpol declaring him absconder from law and the US calling him international terrorist for Pakistan to hand him over to India,” he said.

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