Rahul Gandhi displays monarchical mindset: Advani

New Delhi, Mar 20: Taking exception to the remarks of Congress MP Rahul Gandhi that had a Gandhi been at the helm, Babri Mosque demolition would not have taken place, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha L K Advani today said the young MP had only displayed the ''monarchical mindset'' of the Nehru-Gandhi family.

In a chat with newspersons, Mr Advani said the impression that rule by the Gandhi family was an answer for every ill of the country showed the mindset. ''The heir apparent of the Congress' first family had no qualms in distancing itself by looking at the regimes of Gulzari Lal Nanda, Lal Bahadur Shastri and P V Narasimha Rao as aberrations of the Congress rule,'' Mr Advani said.

''At this rate I will not be surprised if Mr Gandhi were to stretch the logic that there would no Nandigrams or price rise if a Gandhi were to be the Prime Minister,'' he remarked.

Mr Advani did not agree to a question that these observations could be the ideas of the ''speech writer''.

Referring to the CPI(M) the senior BJP leader said, ''This party was alive only because of the support it had got in West Bengal and Kerala while Communism had collapsed the world over because of their 'Stalinist' outlook. By their intolerance and ruthlessness, the Communists had alienated intellectual classes.''

UNI