BJP today reacted angrily to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's attack on Narendra Modi, saying it was unfortunate as the party's PM candidate has come out unscathed after going through unprecedented legal scrutiny not experienced by any leader in independent India.
"Using such a phrase against Modi (that he will be disastrous for the country as premier) does not add to the dignity of the PM office... If the dirty tricks department of the Congress had used such language, it is understandable," Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley told reporters here.
He said using such phraseology was regrettable as besides Modi "no one else in India since 1947 has gone through such a scrutiny involving the Police, Supreme Court, an SIT probe ordered by the SC and a Commission of inquiry.."
He scoffed at the Prime Minister for his remarks that whatever corruption had happened was in UPA-I and after that the Congress has won the last Lok Sabha elections in 2009.
"The Prime Minister has manufactured a new logic. Electoral sanction to a corrupt government wipes out an allegation. First time, a Prime Minister has given such a logic....I feel sorry", he said.
Asserting that Modi will become a "very good" PM, Jaitley said that the Prime Minister could have used the same logic for Modi as he has won three elections in Gujarat since the 2002 riots, but Singh has not done so.
The senior BJP leader claimed that the press conference saw a frank admission by the Prime Minister that his government has failed on containing corruption and inflation and raising employment which is a "perfect recipe for disaster".
Speaking separately, BJP President Rajnath Singh condemned the anti-Modi remarks. He said that the Prime Minister had admitted to the dual power centre that existed in the UPA government, a contention that the saffron party has been making for quite some time.
Rajnath Singh said that the Prime Minister has accepted that the next government is not going to be that of UPA and that is why is has opted himself out for a third term.
