UPA govt's blunders can lead to early polls: BJP

Leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley said on Tuesday that if the United Progressive Alliance II government continues to make major blunders like manhandling of Baba Ramdev's supporters at Ramlila Ground, the general elections may be held earlier than schedule.

He was speaking at a function in New Delhi to celebrate one year in office of Virender Gupta, president of Delhi unit of BJP.

He ridiculed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi for 'messing up affairs of the
nation.' "The statecraft is missing," he noted.

"First the government sends four ministers including number two in the cabinet Pranab Mukherjee to talk to Baba Ramdev at the airport. While they engage him a political dialogue, the other group headed by (Home Minister) P Chidambaram feels that with police force at his command he could use muscle power to throw Ramdev and his supporters from the Ramlila grounds," Jaitley said.

"The right attitude should have been that they should have

given time to people to leave the place. Instead tear gas shells were fired on the supporters in a closed pandal. The policemen should have opened the pandal that would have facilitated people leaving the place," Jaitley said amidst shouts of 'shame shame.'

He recalled what Jai Prakash Narain had said during the emergency in 1975. "Those whom God wants to destroy, he makes them mad first. It is normally said that there is a method behind madness, but in this case there was no such method," he added.

He claimed that the UPA government has isolated itself from the other political parties and people in general for its actions.

"The prime minister is head of the government but UPA government is run by the Gandhi family. What is amusing is when things go wrong the Congressmen start saying that Gandhis were misled," Jaitley remarked.