LK Advani attacks Sonia Gandhi on corruption issue

JAIPUR: BJP leader L K Advani today questioned Congress President Sonia Gandhi's "silence" on corruption issue and asked what she was doing as UPA's "most powerful leader" to curb the menace.

"Corruption has been an issue that has been widely discussed in every town and city in recent times. But why is the Congress President silent on the issue?" Advani said while addressing a press conference here.

"Why have steps to curb corruption not been taken? As far as the Prime Minister is concerned, it has been said that whatever the DMK ministers had done was after permission from the Prime Minister or other senior ministers. I demand that the Congress President breaks her silence on this subject," he said.

Advani, in a written statement, referred to Gandhi's speech read out in her absence in Uttarakhand on Wednesday and said she had stated that corruption cannot be removed by speeches alone.

"I totally agree with her and raise a counter question. What she is doing as the most powerful leader of the UPA government to contain corruption?" he asked.

He said, "Right from 2G spectrum scam to Commonwealth (Games and) a host of other instances of rampant corruption, she has maintained not only silence but gross indifference. Had she asserted her authority in time in an effective manner, much of public revenue would not have been plundered.

"Even now explosive evidence is emerging against senior ministers of the Congress in the 2G scam and gross impropriety of a Congress chief minister in the Commonwealth scam and yet they are being defended in the most shameful manner while Sonia Gandhi maintains her silence and inaction," he alleged.

Advani said, "Therefore, she cannot escape her own responsibility, obligation and accountability. The nation will draw its own inference."