By IANS,
Kolkata : The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Tuesday described as “meaningless” the debate between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on whether Manmohan Singh was a weak prime minister.
“Who is strong and who’s weak… this is a meaningless debate. (L.K.) Advani says he will make a strong prime minister. But it is not a question of personality,” CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat told reporters here.
He said his party was opposed to the policies of the Manmohan Singh government. “We had grudge about their economic policy, foreign policy etc. But an election is not merely about the prime minister.”
Ridiculing BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Advani, he said: “He may be busy projecting himself as a strong prime minister. But that will not matter to somebody in Machilipatnam or Nashik.”
Advani called Manmohan Singh a weak prime minister, leading to strong remarks from Manmohan Singh himself and other top Congress leaders including Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
Karat also scoffed at Advani’s repeated challenge to Manmohan Singh to join him in a television debate.
“He (Advani) wants a presidential type of debate. But we (Third Front) want to have a multi-party coalition. The parties themselves will decide the policies and programmes.”
To another query, Karat said his party was opposed to the presidential system of governance, which would be “authoritarian”.
“The parliamentary system is most suited for a diverse country like India”.