Book official confirmation of 'weakest ever PM': Advani

In the backdrop of the 201-page memoir by a former advisor to the prime minister, the BJP on Sunday hit out at the ruling Congress, saying Sanjay Baru’s book was the “official confirmation” of the main Opposition’s claim that Manmohan Singh was the “weakest ever” prime minister, and Sonia Gandhi always had the last word in government decisions.

“The world already knows what he (Baru) has said, but the book is an official confirmation.

When I said for the first time that among all our prime ministers he (Singh) is the weakest, my own colleagues said, 'He is a nice man; why criticise him so much?' I said I feel sad and have sympathy for him,'' party patriarch L K Advani told reporters in Ahmedabad.

He was referring to his 2009 campaign, in which he had harped about Singh being the “weakest ever” prime minister.

Referring to the book, Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley noted that the prime minister had to get most of his decisions approved and ratified by the Congress president. All “sensitive subjects” had to be discussed with a “person outside the government”.

“It confirms what the country ordinarily suspected. The appointment of key officials would be regulated by 10 Janpath. Contracts, such as those for coal blocks, were allotted by the party. Even the venue for the funeral of former prime minister P V Narsimha Rao was decided on collateral considerations rather than on te desire of the family,” he said.

Jaitley, contesting the Lok Sabha elections from Amritsar, also sought to draw a parallel between the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government and old Communist states.