The UPA government can't last till 2009: Advani

New Delhi, Oct 30: Notwithstanding the claims of withdrawal of threat to the UPA government from the Left parties, Leader of the Opposition L K Advani today asserted that the government cannot last till 2009 when the elections are due.

Releasing 'Sankalp', the special issue of Kamal Sandesh, the ideological magazine of the BJP, Mr Advani said though there might be a cloud of uncertainty, one thing was clear the government will not last till the next elections, and the UPA had turned out to be a model of how not to run a coalition.

He said some foreign delegates had once wondered how the NDA, despite being a successful and model coalition lasting a full term, was unable to win the confidence of the people. He had told them that if NDA was a model government for good governance, the UPA was a model for how not to run a coalition.

The government, headed by a ''Sardar Prime Minister'' had failed totally on checking the prices of essential commodities and security scenario of the country had worsened while the administration pandering minorityism had endangered the very social unity of the country, he alleged.

The UPA might have given the the country, its first Sikh Prime Minister in Dr Manmohan Singh but the post was demeaned and made bereft of power, he added.

''My complaint is that the country should have made Vallabh bhai Patel, the Sardar of Sardar, the country's first Home Minister as he integrated 500-odd royalties and warring principalities into one nation within a span of three and half years, appealing to the patriotic spirits of the kingdoms,'' Mr Advani said.

Some of the rulers had to be appeased, some threatened and defiant principalities like Junagarh and Hyderabad had to be buldozed to join the Indian union. Above all this, he had to handle the issue of migration of millions of refugee Hindu population from Pakistan due to the partition of the country, the BJP leader said.

The first Home Secretary V P Menon too played a pivotal supporting role to Sardar Patel in uniting the country, he added.

''Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru handled only one state--Jammu and Kashmir--and it was yet to integrate fully with the country even after 60 years of Independence,'' he said.

UNI