Advani attacks UPA over Telangana, Kashmir

BJP leader L.K Advani Sunday accused the UPA of messing up the first week of parliament's monsoon session over Telangana and the killing of Indian soldiers in Kashmir.

In his blog, Advani said: "In these 41 years of my parliamentary life, I have never before seen any government messing up a parliament session so horribly as the UPA government has done this time."

He said no major business could take place in the first week of the session that began Aug 5.

"It has been a daily pandemonium... created principally by Congressmen belonging to Andhra protesting against Telangana and demanding that Andhra Pradesh remains united.

He said his colleagues pleaded with the government to restrain Congress members but this was not done.

"One wonders how the ruling party plans to conduct business in the remaining two weeks of the session."

In contrast to the messy creation of Telangana, Advani pointed out how smooth were the births of Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand when the BJP-led NDA ruled India.

"Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar out of which these new entities were carved out passed resolutions in favour of the new states, and parliament with near unanimity passed the necessary enactment.

"All this could be achieved because the BJP was earnest about these new states, and the necessary groundwork had been done."

He said the BJP favoured Telangana even earlier but did not pursue the issue because one of its allies, Telugu Desam Party, was not in favour.

Advani referred to the confusion caused by Defence Minister A.K. Antony's initial remarks suggesting that the Pakistan Army was not to blame for the killing of five Indian soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir.

This, he said, has "inflicted irreparable damage on the reputation of this (UPA) government.

"If the Pakistan Army ambushed our jawans on the LoC, the Indian parliament ... ambushed the defence minister and forced him to take back his wishy-washy version and replace it with another statement, fully reflecting the national mood of anger against Pakistan."