Price rise continuing despite having 'economic expert' PM: Advani

BJP leader LK Advani today accused the government of trying to make coalition partners a scapegoat for corruption for which the government as a whole is responsible.

He also attacked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over rising inflation and said that price rise is continuing unabated even though "we have supposedly an economic expert" at the helm of affairs.

Taking a dig at the prime minister for raising the issue of coalition politics while dealing with corruption in the UPA government, he said, "Coalition imposes restriction in so far as policy matters are concerned, not in terms of integrity".

"There is an attempt to make coalition partners a scapegoat for corruption for which the whole government is responsible," he charged.

"It is only a matter of policy that alliance imposes restrictions, not in matters of integrity. There are no compulsions of coalition dharma," he said.

Maintaining that no single party can come to centre at its own, Advani said there are bound to be coalitions.

"If elections take place in 2014 or earlier, it will be a coalition government," he said.

To a question about choosing coalition partners, the BJP leader admitted that, "In so far as standard of integrity are concerned, the kind of integrity you can impose on your party, you cannot impose on your allies."

He said the party will be more careful in selecting partners in the future and any shortcomings will be dealt with in this regard.