BJP attacks Sonia, says democratic right to expose government deficiencies

NEW DELHI: Attacking Congress President Sonia Gandhi for her remark that it had become "fashionable" to criticise the government, BJP today said it was their "democratic" right to expose the deficiencies and shortcomings of the government.

"If your government does not perform, if prices are not contained, if there is rampant corruption, public money is looted with impunity, if there is declining industrial growth and overall sense of despair, are we not entitled to expose that...Is it fashionable," BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters outside Parliament.

He said this when his attention was drawn to the Congress chief's remarks.

Prasad alleged that public welfare had been the biggest casualty during the tenure of the Congress-led UPA government.

"It is the democratic right of the principle opposition to expose the deficiencies and shortcomings of a government, and we will continue to expose it and I am sorry it is not fashion but obligation," he said.

Addressing a meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party, Gandhi had said, "It seems to have become almost fashionable these days to criticise the government. We must speak forcefully and with confidence on what we have achieved and there is much we have to show despite difficult economic times."