On Radia tapes, Advani hits out at PM

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani on Tuesday took a dig at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, saying the leaked telephonic tapes of Niira Radia showed that the Congress-led government was formed by business lobbies.

"How they talk, the lobbyists of big, big business houses," Advani told a press conference here, referring to Radia's telephonic conversations with leading industrialists and journalists.

"It looks as the Prime Minister does not constitute this UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government," he said.

The veteran politician said the BJP was under the impression that the UPA government was decided by Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

"Now we realise that even the Congress president does not form the government. Look at the people who are speaking with such authority, who are deciding who should get what portfolio," he said.

Taking on the Prime Minister, a day after parliament's winter session ended amid acrimony, Advani also ruled out the possibility of the opposition-government clash over the 2G spectrum row leading to early elections.

"Now, we know that the prime minister is not even aware of various things happening in his own cabinet," Advani said.

He said that Radia conversations exposed the link between corporate lobbyists, politicians and businessmen.

Reacting to Manmohan Singh's statement that the government will seek to prevent leakage of tapped telephonic conversations, Advani said: "Are these matters the prime minister should be worried about?"

Led by the BJP, the opposition paralysed parliament for three weeks demanding a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the allocation of second generation airwaves to telecom companies in 2008 that allegedly caused massive losses to the exchequer.

Advani made it clear that no one wanted another Lok Sabha election now and that speculation about early election was the handiwork of the Congress.

"It is only scare-mongering. To scare the MPs and to break the opposition unity that has come about," Advani said.

"The mid-term talks have come officially from ministers, whom I do not want to mention. They know a parliament was elected one-and-a-half years back. Why would an average MP elected for five years like to curtail his own tenure," he asked.

Advani said the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had not brought a no-confidence motion against the government as non-NDA opposition members may not have supported it.

The winter session of parliament that ended Monday was washed out with barely any work conducted as the opposition stalled both houses daily over its demand for a JPC probe into the spectrum scam.