Sonia flays Advani, seeks to debunk his 'strong leader' claim

ALLAHABAD: Seeking to pick holes on BJP's prime ministerial candidate L K Advani's claim to be a "strong leader", Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Sunday questioned his handling of internal security and ridiculed him for stepping down as party chief "under pressure" after Jinnah controversy.

Without directly referring to the RSS-BJP relationship, she also said the Congress has never been "remote-controlled" by any other organisation.

In a hard-hitting speech, Gandhi came down heavily on Advani without naming him, saying that "attacks on Parliament, the Raghunath temple in Jammu and Akshardham in Gujarat took place when the 'mazboot neta' (strong leader) was the deputy prime minister and also holding the Home portfolio".

Citing Advani's remarks describing Mohammad Ali Jinnah as "secular", she, in an apparent reference to RSS, said "when the strong leader made an unfortunate statement, he had to disown it under pressure from another organisation which forced him to step down from the top post in his own party".

"The strong leader's government" had released terrorists during Kandahar episode and escorted them to Afghanistan, she said. "On the other hand, when Mumbai was attacked, we not only nabbed a culprit but also made Pakistan acknowledge that the assailants came from their land."

"Ours has been a party and a government which has never taken orders from or been remote-controlled by any other organisation. So it is upto the people to decide who is weak and who is strong," the Congress leader said.