Cong misusing PM's 'veneer of respectability' for double-speak: BJP

BJP on Tuesday alleged the UPA government was indulging in double-speak on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and credentials of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, and getting away with it under the "veneer of respectability" enjoyed by prime minister Manmohan Singh.

Accusing Singh of misusing the "veneer of respectability" around him, senior BJP MP Arun Shourie told reporters that "on Monday the prime minister said forget the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. But earlier he had himself said in Parliament that this
incident was wrong".

Shourie said Singh had also distanced himself from the controversy of giving Congress tickets to 1984 riots accused Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar. "When their tickets were cancelled, he said "der aaye par durust aaye (better late than never)," he alleged.

Similarly, on the Congress' stand on Bihar chief minister Kumar, Shourie said while Delhi CM Shiela Dikshit and Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi were all praises for him, the prime minister doubted his secular credentials.

The BJP Rajya Sabha MP further alleged that "under the umbrella of Singh's honesty", corruption in the UPA government had reached "unprecedented levels".