Cong hits back at Advani, says he is like 'stuck gramaphone'

Soon after Advani said in Kolkata that Singh was a "weak" Prime Minister and he felt sorry for him, Congress spokesman Manish Tewari  reminded the BJP leader of the fate his party in the last Lok Sabha elections after a similar attack was mounted on Singh.

"The very personal campaign against the Prime Minister does not behove his (Advani's) stature and his experience in public life", Tewari told reporters.

"I pity him. Unfortunately the Chairperson of NDA (Advani) has started sounding like a stuck gramophone record," the Congress spokesman said. He said "all these frivolous, baseless and unsubstantiated insinuations were parroted out by BJP in the run-up to 2009 elections also" and the result was that Congress came to power with bigger mandate.

Alleging that BJP has perfected a strategy that can be summed up into two words "shoot and scoot", Tewari said, the main Opposition party has "super specialised in a campaign of calumny".

Countering BJP on the issue of corruption, the Congress spokesperson questioned its "deafening silence" on alleged irregularities in Karnataka and other BJP ruled states. Earlier while addressing a rally in Kolkata, Advani said, "I pity Manmohan Singh. I am not angry. I have seen prime ministers since the time of Nehru, but I have never seen such a weak prime minister."

He said for the first time a prime minister of the country had to file an affidavit in the Supreme Court - on the 2G spectrum case. He demanded that JPC probe should be ordered to cover all cases of corruption, including 2G spectrum, CWG and (Adarsh Housing) defence land scam.