On the day the Supreme Court struck down the appointment of Central Vigilance Commissioner P J Thomas,BJP parliamentary party chairperson and senior leader L K Advani said that the UPA government is gripped by a larger crisis for which both the prime minister and Congress president are accountable. Speaking to The Indian Express,Advani said: I say that for what happened on the CVC and JPC,both the PM and Congress president are answerable. They should think about it. Today they have the advantage that there is no V P Singh who can pick up the banner of revolt. But so far as the crisis of the government and ruling party is concerned,it is apparent. Advani accused the government of a brazenness that has led to its inability to prevent the current embarrassment. What is astonishing is the governments inability to anticipate that this would happen. The periodic comments by the SC on the CVC were a clear pointer that the SC is unhappy with the choice of CVC. This is brazenness of the government. At least on the demand for the JPC,they held a series of meetings,he said. In the last few months,said Advani,while the Opposition has been essentially performing its role of attacking the government,the government has been confronting constitutional authorities one after the other. He pointed to the manner in which one of their ministers ridiculed the CAG,and the way the failure to hold the Winter Session was being blamed on the Opposition. After all,the Opposition is also part of the constitutional structure. An important element of the present crisis,he said,is the erosion of the authority of the PMs office and the party leaderships control over its parliamentary party. For the first time in the history of parliamentary democracy,the presidents address was disturbed by members of the ruling party,in the name of the party president. Those who disrupted the address carried placards saying Jai Sonia Gandhi Jai Telangana. To the best of my recollection,no ruling party,no opposition party,neither the Congress,BJP or Left has demonstrated before the rashtrapati. You (the Congress) cant control your own party. Unless you are able to control your party,how can the government run? Also,the PM has to file an affidavit himself (in response to Subramanian Swamys letter) when earlier the solicitor-general or attorney general would have replied. For the first time in the history of Parliament,a Cabinet minister not only is forced to resign,but is also sent to jail. Advani recalled a face-off similar to that over the CVC issue between government and Opposition in 2008 that one had ended with the government giving in. On that occasion,the government was considering the appointment of an information commissioner and had proposed the name of former Gujarat top cop RB Sreekumar. The then minister of state in the PMO Prithviraj Chavan came to me and said the government wants to appoint a police officer in Gujarat who had carried out a vicious campaign against (Narendra) Modi. I said I will write to the PM to say that if this is the decision,I will not come to the meeting. The (then) home minister Shivrajji and the PM can take the decision. The meeting was postponed,says Advani,but he made it clear that a panel of names be considered,not just one name. When the meeting was held 8-10 days later,a panel of three names was given to him,including Sreekumars name. For the first 15-20 minutes,the PM and Shivrajji kept trying to convince me to accept him. I said,if you persist,you will have to decide by majority and I will record my dissent. Then what really shocked me because it betrayed the pathetic position of the prime minister the PM said,can I call (Prithviraj) Chavan from the next room? Chavan came and for the next 15 minutes,he too tried to persuade me. I refused. Then the PM looked at Shivrajji and said,what shall we do? Shivrajji said,if Advaniji feels so strongly,lets take one of the other two names. This happened before the 2009 poll campaign when I used to refer to the PM as the weakest PM I have seen. Asked about the current session of Parliament and the slew of stalled bills,Advani said There will be no obstacle to parliament because of the CVC issue. I dont think so. Even earlier,we were at loggerheads with the government on the JPC in the last session but we allowed supplementary demands for grants to be passed,we never precipitate a constitutional crisis. As far as the GST is concerned,Madhya Pradesh has a problem,we cannot impose our view on the states. MPs finance minister thinks it is encroachment on state rights by the Centre. Other states,like Uttar Pradesh,have also said the same. But the PM called it blackmail only because Gujarat expressed the view. On the insurance,pension and other stalled bills,Agreement can still happen. Well discuss,well work it out he said. Advani wishes Rahul speedy recovery On a day that brought high embarrassment for the government and jubilation for the Opposition,L K Advani called up Rahul Gandhi. The call on Thursday evening to the Congress general secretary,who is convalescing after an injury,was to wish him a speedy recovery.
