President should dismiss UPA govt, bring polls forward: Rajnath Singh

JAMMU: Lashing out at the Congress-led UPA ruling coalition at the Centre for its alleged all-round failure, BJP today urged the President to dismiss the Manmohan Singh government and bring forward the Lok Sabha elections which are slated for next year.

"UPA government has failed on all fronts -- economic, security and diplomatic.

"It is in the interests of the country that UPA should go," BJP national president, Rajnath Singh, told reporters here.

"The country is facing economic and security problems and the UPA should leave the government.

"We have asked President (Pranab Mukherjee) to bring the elections forward," he said.

Talking about the economic slowdown in the country, rising inflation and fall of the rupee, Singh said that the situation now was similar to that in 1991 when India had to mortgage its gold.

"The PM has given a new formula of blaming the disruptions of Parliament for poor investments and the economic crisis.

"(But) how is the opposition responsible for it. UPA government is totally responsible for it," he said.

Referring to the loss of files related to the coal scam, Singh said, "I want to ask the PM if he is not the custodian of these files, who is?

"Coal ministry was with the PM and there is a need to fix accountability in the matter," he said.

In reply to a question on self-styled godman Asaram Bapu's arrest on charges of sexually assaulting a minor girl, Singh said that the law would take its course in the case. He also denied that the BJP-led Madhya Pradesh government was going soft on Asaram.