Shri L.K. Advani, Leader of the Opposition (Lok Sabha) has sharply criticized the crisis-ridden government headed by Dr. Manmohan Singh, saying that “in my six decades in national politics, I have never across a government that has remained in a state of paralysis for so long a time due to its own internal contradictions.”

"The UPA government is in ICU,” he said, while speaking at a function in Mumbai last night. It was organised by Business Standard to give away awards to innovative entrepreneurs. “How the government will rescue itself is something that I do not know, for I am not a doctor,” he added. “The UPA government has sealed its own fate. It has written its own epitaph even before its formal exit."

Commenting on the latest inflation rate having shot up to 11 %, which is a 13-year record, Shri Advani said, “Certainly, people expected better management of the nation’s economy from Dr. Manmohan Singh, who is known to be a distinguished economist.”

On the Indo-US nuclear deal, Shri Advani said that “the government has pushed itself into a corner.” He remarked that the crisis was a “predictable outcome of the contradictions” between the Congress-Communist combine. “It was known right from the beginning that the Congress and the CPI(M)-led Left parties do not share any common ground on economic and foreign policies. And, yet, they came together on the bogus claim of unity of ‘secular forces’. Frankly, the real aim of the two parties was to keep the BJP out. And now the contradictions between the Congress and the Communists have inevitably come home to roost.”

"If the government goes ahead with operationalisation of the nuclear deal, the Communists will withdraw their support. If the government once again chooses to retreat, the Prime Minister’s credibility and authority, which were never very high, will have all but evaporated. My simple question to Congressmen is this: IS THIS THE WAY TO RUN A GOVERNMENT?

The Leader of the Opposition claimed that “the people of India are now looking beyond the UPA government. India cannot afford a weak and wobbly government at a time when our country faces many formidable challenges…To face all these challenges, India needs a strong government and a strong leadership.”

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