UPA govt institutionalised corruption, criminalised politics:BJP

New Delhi, May 30 (UNI) Launching a scathing attack on the UPA government, the BJP today charged it with institutionalising corruption and criminalising politics by including tainted ministers in the cabinet.

''The nation has rightly been concerned about the criminalisation of politics. The UPA, however, succeeded in criminalisation of the Council of Minister. Never before have so many of its members been tainted by serious criminal accusation. They found in their powerless Prime Minister a defender of the taint,'' the BJP said in its political resolution adopted at the two-day BJP Executive meeting here.

The Prime Minister has flagrantly set aside all norms of probity in public life to declare that his ministers must be presumed innocent until proven guilty, the BJP charged.

''Emboldened by these tainted ministers, the UPA has decided to brazen out every allegation of corruption. The Volcker revelations have established that even when out of power, the Congress party and its leaders managed to convert diplomacy into commerce. Both the Congress Party and Mr Natwar Singh were beneficiaries of the Iraqi oil coupons which were free tradable for profit. The Prime Minister was the first to give a clean chit to Mr K Natwar Singh.

He has now become a veteran of giving clean chits to the tainted,'' the resolution charged.

The BJP said that media revelation about Volcker disclosures have conclusively proved that the Congress generates one of the most dishonest political culture of our time.

It charged the UPA government with subverting the CBI and other institutions to put a lid on the sensational cases of corruption relating to Capt Satish Sharma, Shibu Soren and the infamous Bofors case.

''The UPA government was brazen enough to even force the CBI to write to the Crown Prosecution Services that the money seized and frozen in British Bank accounts should be returned to Mr Quattrocchi, a close friend of Gandhi family. The Scorpene submarine deal also reeks of corruption,'' the resolution charged.

In Congress ruled states such as Punjab, land and liquor have become the two most significant instruments of revenue collection by the Congress party, it stated.

UNI AJ RP RK1908