Cong hits back at Advani

Soon after Advani said in Kolkata that Singh was a "weak" Prime Minister and he felt sorry for him, Congress spokesman Manish Tewari reminded the BJP leader of the fate his party in the last Lok Sabha elections after a similar attack was mounted on Singh.

"The very personal campaign against the Prime Minister does not behove his (Advani`s) stature and his experience in public life", Tewari told reporters.

"I pity him. Unfortunately the Chairperson of NDA (Advani) has started sounding like a stuck gramophone record," the Congress spokesman said.

He said "all these frivolous, baseless and unsubstantiated insinuations were parroted out by BJP in the run-up to 2009 elections also" and the result was that Congress came to power with bigger mandate.

Alleging that BJP has perfected a strategy that can be summed up into two words "shoot and scoot", Tewari said, the main Opposition party has "super specialised in a campaign of calumny".

Countering BJP on the issue of corruption, the Congress spokesperson questioned its "deafening silence" on alleged irregularities in Karnataka and other BJP ruled states.

Earlier while addressing a rally in Kolkata, Advani said, "I pity Manmohan Singh. I am not angry. I have seen prime ministers since the time of Nehru, but I have never seen such a weak prime minister."

He said for the first time a prime minister of the country had to file an affidavit in the Supreme Court - on the 2G spectrum case.

He demanded that JPC probe should be ordered to cover all cases of corruption, including 2G spectrum, CWG and (Adarsh Housing) defence land scam .