By IANS,
New Delhi : Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Arun Jaitley Thursday took on Congress president Sonia Gandhi for her “ghulam” (slave) utterances against BJP’s prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani, saying it “smacked of arrogance” and “frustration”.
Jaitley told reporters that: “The frustration of the Congress is evident in the choice of its words.”
“Its topmost leader (Sonia Gandhi) leader uses words like ‘ghulam (slave)’ and ‘rubbish.’ This not only smacks of arrogance but also of some element of frustration.”
Sonia Gandhi at an election rally in Karnataka’s Bidar Wednesday had described Advani a “slave of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)”. She had also termed as “rubbish” the BJP leader’s oft-repeated remark that Manmohan Singh was a weak prime minister.
Taking a dig at the Congress, Jaitley said the party “probably thinks Advaniji is the chief issue in this election”, and added that his party had no problem if the Congress wanted to put Advani “at the centrestage”.
He also referred to the Maoist attacks during the first phase of elections Thursday and blamed the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government for it.
“The attack by the Maoists today is a pointer to the real situation of internal security,” Jaitley said, and added that the Congress government had failed to address the social and economic concerns of the Maoists.
Commenting on the economic situation, the BJP general secretary said despite the prime minister being an economist, the country’s economic situation had deteriorated.
He said that in the time of recession food prices worldwide were decreasing whereas in India it was the other way around, and added that there were salary cuts and staff being given pink slips too.