Left, SP ask Centre to mend ways

New Delhi: The Congress-led government on Monday came in for a scathing attack in Parliament from allies, the Left and Samajwadi Party, who asked it not not to take their support for granted if it failed to "mend ways".

The Opposition BJP alleged that Manmohan Singh was a puppet Prime Minister.

The outside supporters of the government brought discomfiture to the ruling side with CPI-M leader Basubed Acharia bluntly saying "we supported this government so that the policy followed by the earlier NDA government should be changed but our support should not be taken for granted."

SP's Ramjilal Suman put the Government on notice saying that his party would be forced bring a no-confidence motion against the Government if it failed to mend its ways on Iran issue.

The occasion was the debate in the Lok Sabha on the motion of thanks to the President's address, which was also taken up in the other house.

"The Prime Minister is in office, but not in control. Otherwise why did the Prime Minister get angry when (Leader of Opposition) LK Advani said he was 'invisible'. Queen Bee is in control", BJP Deputy Leader V K Malhotra said participating in the debate.

BJP President Rajnath Singh was equally harsh on Government in Rajya Sabha where he charged it with failure on all counts and questioned the relevance of National Advisory Council headed by Sonia Gandhi.

A stiff defence of the Government's performance was put up by Congress member Madhusudan Mistri, who initiated the debate, and Jyotiraditya Scindia who alleged that Opposition was raising non-issues to divert attention of the people.

Participating in the debate, the Left leaders asked whether India's national interest is protected by supporting the US stand on Iran.

They wondered whether the Common Minimum Programme was only to form the government and to be later forgotten for pursuing own policies.

The Left was also stringent in its criticism of the government on airport privatisation as also its move on FDI in single brand retail.

The Opposition alleged in both Houses that the ruling coalition was promoting corruption and wondered over the Prime Minister's statement that he was not aware that the Additional Solicitor General went to London to de-freeze bank accounts of Bofors accused Ottavio Quattrocchi.

Attempting to take the sheen out of the Government's claims of a clean image, BJP members said Manmohan Singh had "sacked" four Ministers since the UPA government took office 20 months ago.

"Singh first gave clean chit to these Ministers like Shibu Soren and K Natwar Singh, but then had to remove them. By giving clean chits to them, Mr Clean is damaging his own image," they said.

Government has already announced that the Prime Minister will reply to the discussion on Wednesday and both the Houses would take up a debate on the Iran on February 23.