No harshness in PM remark: LK

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Senior BJP leader L.K. Advani at a rally during his Janchetna Yatra at Morabadi Grounds in Ranchi on Friday. — PTI

Veteran BJP leader L.K. Advani on Friday reiterated his earlier stand that Dr Manmohan Singh was the weakest Prime Minister, ignoring Dr Singh’s request that he should not use harsh words against him. “The Prime Minister has said that we should not use harsh words. But I have not used any harsh words. I have only said that of all the Prime Ministers that I have seen from Pandit Nehru till today, he is perhaps the weakest. This is merely a political comment. Where is harshness in it?” he asked. Mr Advani was speaking to the media a day after addressing a rally in the city. The rally at Satyanarayan Park was part of his Janchetna Yatra.
Referring to the statement Dr Singh made on board his special flight while returning from Pretoria on Wednesday in which he said he was hurt by Mr Advani’s “intemperate” words, Mr Advani said: “If calling a spade a spade is wrong then I plead guilty.”
He also pointed out that even the Supreme Court had observed that the 2G scam could have been averted and the estimated `1.76 lakh crore loss to the exchequer saved had the Prime Minister acted.
Launching a scathing attack against the rampant corruption plaguing the UPA government, Mr Advani said that Dr Singh was heading a government which was showing symptoms of terminal decline after suffering multiple organ failure.
Later on Friday, Mr Advani spent the better part of his eight-minute address at a rally in Jharkhand’s capital Ranchi on showering praise on the state’s continually embattled BJP-led coalition government than speaking on the urgency of weeding out corruption from the country.
While his nationwide Janchetna Yatra against corruption kept its promised date with Jharkhand, Mr Advani left thousands of BJP supporters in the state a bit disappointed due to his unexpectedly brief stop in Ranchi. The BJP patriarch flew in from Kolkata and flew out by a special aircraft for Port Blair after addressing a massively crowded rally at the Morahbadi Maidan in Ranchi from a 60X40-feet dais along with Jharkhand’s BJP chief minister Arjun Munda, among others.
Such was the excitement — or possible anxieties growing out of the tour on its 10th day — that Mr Advani even forgot the name of his much-hyped anti-corruption campaign during his address, first calling it “Janadesh yatra” and then “Jan yatra” before getting it right. He asked BJP-led state governments to accomplish the twin objectives of his yatra — good governance and clean politics — saying: “If we cannot provide good governance, how can we forgive ourselves?”
Praising the Munda-led four-party coalition government in Jharkhand, Mr Advani said he was glad the tribal leader was “honestly trying to give good governance”.
Mr Advani also praised Jharkhand’s upcoming Ladli Laxmi Yozana, a welfare scheme for girls to be implemented from November 15.