Leader of Opposition L K Advani on Saturday lashed out at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh saying he has lost “whatever little legitimacy he had in the high office” by making “a U-turn” over the Indo-US nuclear deal.

“After keeping the nation on tenterhooks for over three months and precipitating the worst ever political crisis for his own government because of his intransigent stand over the Indo-US nuclear deal, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has suddenly done a U-turn”, he said in statement.

Advani recalled that neither rejection of the deal by the NDA and a majority in Parliament, nor widespread criticism from the community of scientists, security experts and foreign policy professionals had affected the prime minister or the Congress president, “who fully backed him, see reason”.

He said shockingly, thus, the prime minister was assisting the United States to bring India into the NPT regime through the backdoor, even though every previous prime minister since 1968 (when the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty came into being) had refused to sign it.

“Therefore, when I now hear Dr Manmohan Singh say, “Even if the nuclear deal does not go through, it will not be the end of life,” all I can say is that this is certainly the end of whatever little legitimacy he had in the high office he occupies,” Advani said in a statement.

He said the backtracking by the prime minister and the Congress president was not out of principles but due to the realisation that pushing the deal would sink the government.