The BJP on Wednesday said UPA-2’s first year in office was marred by issues, including faltering on strategic and foreign policy, its failure on the internal security issue and an uneasy relationship between allies. The party also said the government failed to curb spiralling prices of essential commodities and misused institutions like the CBI to manage vulnerable allies.
Senior party leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley said: “Normally, the first year of any government is a very comfortable period. For the Congress-led UPA, it started with a slender majority and opportunistic support of the BSP, SP and RJD but they thought they had captured the moon and made arrogance their political culture.” He said the UPA has a very “uneasy relationship” with these three allies, terming them a “vulnerable section of the Opposition” or the “phoney Opposition” and alleged misuse of the CBI to control them.
Mr Jaitley said during the cut motion and the earlier vote of confidence (UPA-1), though the actual voting took place in Parliament, “the gameplan for voting was decided by the CBI in the corridors of the Supreme Court”.
The BJP leader was hinting at allegations of the CBI going slow against SP, BSP and RJD leaders in disproportionate assets cases against them allegedly to get their support. Mr Jaitley said the Congress did not have the best of relations with other allies too.
The UPA-II government completes one year in power on May 22.
The BJP leader also accused Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of “easily” coming under international pressure and cited the nuclear deal, Sharm el-Sheikh statement and foreign secretary-level talks with Pakistan and the Copenhagen summit to argue his point.