BJP does not take its internal weaknesses lightly: LK Advani

Virtually admitting embarrassment on account of BS Yeddyurappa's arrest in an alleged land scam, LK Advani Tuesday said it will be difficult to win against the "corrupt" Congress if his party too is bedevilled by similar weaknesses.

However, he asked the Congress to see the writing on the wall in the wake of Monday's rout in byelections and said the UPA government could be pulled down if any of its allies chooses to do so.

Addressing a press conference here, Advani initially parried a question on Yeddyurappa but later admitted that the party suffered embarrassment on account of former Karnataka chief minister's arrest.

"We don't take our internal weaknesses lightly. This thing was vindicated in Karnataka clearly. We had cautioned him but once the report (of Lok Ayukta on illegal mining) came, he had to quit. Small mistakes by others is embarrassing the party leadership. There may be chances of a slip up so I am telling every one in the party to remain vigilant," he said.

Advani went on to add that the party was fully conscious of the fact that "no party can win the confidence of the people against the present corruption of the Congress party if it's own house is bedevilled by similar weaknessses."

He also described the present political situation as "very uncertain" and said no one can predict what is likely to happen. Someone in the government may say they will continue in power for another two years and someone in opposition may affirm that the government will not last long.

"I cannot say either way. The uncertain political situation depended essentially on the government and whatever remains of the UPA if one of them wants to pull it down... But the Opposition by itself cannot pull it down," he said.

Advani said while in the case of Rajiv Gandhi's government VP Singh pulled it down, Congress is fortunate that "there is no VP Singh now".

"But we are fortunate to have CAG, Supreme Court and the RTI. Hence Congress is talking about taking a critical view of the RTI Act," Advani said.

Terming the bypoll results as "significant," Advani said the Congress and its allies lost everywhere in the bypolls. The defeat of Congress was notable even in states like Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Haryana where it is in power, he said.

"It is apparent that the people of the country are no more willing to tolerate the UPA because of its consistent anti-people and corrupt track record. The countdown for the demise has begun," he said.

Apart from the severe drubbing in the Hisar Lok Sabha constituency, Congress lost all the three Assembly bypolls, results of which were declared yesterday.

Out of the three Assembly seats, BJP won Khadakwasala in Maharashtra and its NDA ally JD(U) in Daraunda in Bihar while TRS bagged the Banswada seat in Andhra Pradesh. The HJC-BJP combine candidate Kuldeep Bishnoi won the Hisar seat.

On the issue of black money and steps taken by the BJP-led NDA government in the past to bring it back, Advani said the laws were stringent at that time and banks in Switzerland were not parting with any information.

He said it was only after serious economic crisis that European countries particularly Germany sought the list of black money depositors and subsequently obtained it.

It contained about 2000 names of which 500 belonged to Germany, he said.

Attacking the UPA government on the black money issue, Advani said the German government that time expressed its willingness to share it with those countries approaching it.

"The Indian Government did approach it and secure the list but that was neither made public nor efforts made to bring back the black money stashed there," he said.