Alarm bells ringing about nation security:Gadkari

New Delhi: BJP president Nitin Gadkari today said "alarm bells" are ringing about the security of the nation and expressed concern over the "strange atmosphere" inside and outside Parliament about issues surrounding it.

"There is a strange atmosphere inside and outside the Parliament about important issue concerning national security...alarm bells are ringing about the security of the nation," he said addressing a press conference.

However, he did not directly refer to the controversy surrounding the Army Chief`s claims about the bribe offer and his letter to the Prime Minister in which he had talked about lack of defence preparedness.

Hitting out at the Centre over a "series of scams", Gadkari said the slowdown in European economy had given an opportunity to India to accelerate its growth but the UPA government could not seize it due to "corruption and wrong policies".

"The economic slowdown had given us an opportunity to accelerate our growth. But because of corruption, we lost the opportunity. We are now facing the problem of credibility in the whole world," he said, referring to 2G spectrum scam and alleged irregularities in hosting of the Commonwealth Games.

Alleging that "largescale corruption" and wrong policies of the UPA were fuelling price rise and inflation in the country, Gadkari also slammed the Centre for hiking the Service Tax which he said would further burden the common man.