Credit of Lokpal should go to Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Anna Hazare: Rajnath Singh

Passage of Lokpal Bill should be credited to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Anna Hazare, BJP president Rajnath Singh said today.

"Lokpal Bill has passed, and Rahul Gandhi says he did it. But the credited should go to Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Anna Hazare," Rajnath Singh claimed while addressing a rally here.

"It was Vajpayee, who stood for Lokpal Bill in the House," he said in the presence of party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.

Singh claimed that prices of commodities were under check during Vajpayee regime despite sanctions due to nuclear tests and Kargil war.

"Now Prime Minister Manmohan Singh says, he doesn’t have a magic wand to control prices. If that is so, he should go to Vajpayee," the BJP chief said.

"The Prime Minister has also said naxalism is a threat to internal security. I would like to ask him what solution has he brought about to control it?" asked Singh.

Appealing to the Maoists to return to the mainstream, he reached out the extremists saying, "a bullet takes a person’s life while a vote breaths life in the (democratic) system." On political instability in Jharkhand that witnessed nine governments in 13 years, Singh pitched for increase in the House strength to bring stability.

"It was the Arjun Munda government which had passed a resolution in the House to make it a 150-member house from its present strength of 81 elected members and sent it to the Centre, but the Centre is sitting on it," Singh said.