Thaindian News

New Delhi, Feb 16 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Wednesday accused Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of failing to deal with corruption and price rise.

Responding to remarks by the prime minister here, BJP president Nitin Gadkari said Manmohan Singh had sought to “cover up” scams related to the 2G spectrum, the Commonwealth Games and the Adarsh Housing Society.

“It was disappointing… The prime minister admitted he does not have strength to fight corruption,” Gadkari said.

He said Manmohan Singh was blaming the media and opposition parties for the scams facing the government.

Gadkari alleged that Manmohan Singh had expressed his inability to check corruption citing coalition politics.

“Coalition does not mean ministry outsourcing… His remarks that the finance ministry had supported decisions taken regarding the 2G spectrum showed that everybody was involved,” Gadkari said.

The BJP president said the winter session of parliament would not have been lost if the prime minister had agreed to face a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the spectrum scandal.

Gadkari alleged that the “wrong policies” of the Manmohan Singh government were to blame for inflation and corruption.

CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury said the prime minister had “thrown up his hands” on corruption and price rise and tried to justify the spectrum scam by comparing it with subsidies in the food and fertiliser sectors.

“It is an admission that the government was subsidising the corporate sector by giving away national assets at throwaway prices. Subsidising the rich is naked loot of the country,” he said.