New Delhi, Mar 19: Senior BJP leader L K Advani today said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's claim that UPA's victory in 2009 polls absolved his government of all charges in cash-for-votes scam would mean Rajiv Gandhi was guilty in Bofors case as he had lost the subsequent 1989 elections.
Describing Singh's defence of UPA in Parliament in the wake of Wikileaks expose on cash-for-votes scam of 2008 as "a frantic but futile effort to whitewash" the scandal, Advani wondered how an electoral win could absolve the victor of all the charges.
"Since when has an election victory come to be regarded as exoneration of crimes committed by the victor before his election? Does the Prime Minister realise the serious implications of this absurd thesis," the BJP leader said in his latest blog post.
He maintained that if one were to go by this "preposterous thesis", then Gandhi- who was accused in the Bofors gun pay-offs case and subsequently lost the elections in 1989- too should be held guilty.
"After this new thesis put forth by Dr Manmohan Singh to claim that the people of India have endorsed his brazen bribery shenanigans, does he realise that by the same logic the 1989 verdict of the Lok Sabha would mean that the Indian electorate had pronounced Rajiv Gandhi guilty in the Bofors scandal?" Advani said.
The BJP Parliamentary Party Chief insisted that the WikiLeaks revelations have "gravely undermined" Singh's position in national politics.
In a pointed attack against the Prime Minister, Advani stated that WikiLeaks have revelead how Singh was isolated in his own government on issues like talks with Pakistan. The cabals claim that Singh and his then National Security Advisor M K Narayanan did not agree on this issue.
"I believe that if on issues related with terrorism, like Pakistan and J&K, evaluation were to be made of Indian public opinion, Dr Manmohan Singh would be discovered isolated not only in his own Government but even among the people," Advani said on his blog.
The senior BJP leader also referred to the cables in WikiLeaks which expose how a Congress leader's aide showed two cash chests containing money to be paid to MPs to buy them off for the trust vote. He concurs with some reports that this is a Wikibomb which has put the Congress-led government in a spot. PTI
