UPA is a lame-duck government: L K Advani

Nagpur: Senior BJP leader L K Advani on Thursday described the UPA government as a lame duck one that is just about surviving on a day-to-day basis.

“The dispensation has virtually been reduced to a lame duck government since August last year with no one able to say how long it will last,” Advani said after releasing a book Dilli Darbar, written by Marathi daily Tarun Bharat's senior Delhi-based correspondent Ravindra Dani.

With an obvious reference to the Left parties' threat to withdraw support to the government over the issue of India's nuclear deal with the US, he said it was a pity that the Congress-led government was brought to this pass by the communists who have lost relevance in the world and whose existence in the country is restricted to two states.

Taking a resume of the Indian political scenario of the last 20 years that Dani's book, a compilation of his weekly column Dilli Darbar covers, Advani said, the period of time marks the transition of Indian polity from unipolar to bipolar, “which BJP has brought about in a well-planned manner”.

Advani also claimed credit for BJP for what he saw as its contribution to India's transformation from a poor, backward country to the one that commands respect in the world today.

“Infirmities and problems apart, India is a success story with three outstanding features - 60 years of democratic rule barring the exception of the 1975-77 Emergency, acquisition of nuclear capability and change of tract of its economic policy crucial for its progress," the BJP's prime ministerial candidate said.