Thaindian News

New Delhi, March 25 (IANS) Mounting a counter-attack on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his barb on party leader L.K. Advani about his ambition to be prime minister, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Friday said his remarks were aimed at somebody else within the Congress.

BJP leader Arun Jaitley said that though the prime minister named Advani in his reply to debate on the cash-for votes controversy, he was addressing somebody else.

Manmohan Singh, in his reply in the Lok Sabha Wednesday, said that Advani had not forgiven him for becoming the prime minister. “Advaniji believes that prime ministership is his birthright… Please wait for another three-and-half-years for your next opportunity,” he had said.

Jaitley, to a query on the prime minister’s remarks, said: “Though he named Advani, he was addressing somebody else. Democratic parties do not believe in birthright… They accept leaders on merit, not on concept of birthright.”

Jaitley said only those parties that believe in dynastic succession were committed to the concept of birthright.

Without mentioning the name of Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, who is sometimes referred to as a scion, Jaitley said that in a dynastic party members of a dynasty acquire a right by belonging to a family.

Jaitley, who addressed a press conference along with party leader Sushma Swaraj, at the conclusion of the budget session, said that leaders in the BJP had risen due to their work.

Asked if it was proper for the prime minister to have made the remarks, Jaitley said he would not say if it was proper or not but the remarks were “nonetheless clever”.