Manmohan responsible for price rise, says BJP

Patna: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has failed to control the spiralling prices of essential commodities and the United Progressive Alliance government is insecure and has misplaced priorities, according to Bharatiya Janata Party's national spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad

“Mr. Singh, who is regarded as a noted economist, has completely failed to control the rampant price rise of essential commodities. Why is it that there is always a price rise whenever there is a Congress-led government at the Centre?” said Mr. Prasad said here on Sunday.

“Prices of essential commodities remained under a tight leash when the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government was in power for six years,” he claimed.

“The government is insecure and has misplaced priorities. It is more concerned instead with banal issues such as attacking actor Amitabh Bachchan for sharing the same podium with Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan,” he said.

Headley issue

Terming the Centre's stand on the Headley affair vapid and a “gross failure of diplomatic initiatives” on its part, Mr. Prasad said, “Headley has named four Pakistani officers as part of the 26/11 conspiracy. Why are only the Karachi and Lahore angles being looked at and the Pakistan Army establishment's direct role in the terrorist strike being ignored.”

“During the course of his two-day dialogue with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi smugly hailed a Pakistan-U.S. ‘partnership'. So, does the U.S. now endorse Pakistan's sponsorship of terrorism in this ‘alliance',” he said.

Naxal challenge

On the Centre's armed operations to combat naxalism, he said he endorsed an armed offensive against naxals, but the nature of challenge must be well understood and the police action well coordinated.

“Naxals do not believe in capturing power by using constitutional means. They believe that power flows from the barrel of a gun,” he pointed out.