BJP praises prime minister for gracefully apologising for Atal remark

BJP today praised prime minister Manmohan Singh for showing grace in apologising for the demeaning remarks made by a Congress member against former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and said this situation would not have arisen had the offender himself done so yesterday.

BJP top brass comprising LK Advani, Arun Jaitley, SS Ahluwalia, Ananth Kumar and Sushma Swaraj held a meeting today morning before the Parliament session, and decided that since the prime minister was likely to attend the Lok Sabha, the party would wait for his response.

"It was decided that if the prime minister apologised, we would let the Lok Sabha function, otherwise stage a walk-out. We thank the prime minister for showing the grace in apologising when his attention was drawn to the issue," Swaraj said.

She defended her party's stand yesterday after Congress  member Beni Prasad Verma made a demeaning remark againstVajpayee. "I told the speaker thrice that the House would start functioning within 20 seconds, if the member only said that he uttered these words inadvertently," she said.

"But the body language of the member and the way he expressed regret...We also wanted to listen to the home minister. And there were 20 other speakers left (who could not speak)," Swaraj added.

Asserting that the party could not have gone back on its word after seeking an apology, Swaraj said there was a big difference between the home minister and the prime minister apologising.