The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has been reduced to a patient in an ICU, Leader of Opposition LK Advani said on Monday in his opening remarks on the debate on the trust motion.
The government was sworn in on May 22, 2004, Advani said. Four years and two months later, he
said, it faced the likelihood of being voted out, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said.
Lashing out at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Advani said: "Without the Congress president's (Sonia Gandhi) approval, you will not take a single step."
Addressing Manmohan Singh, he said: "Please don't blame anyone else for having this kind of a special session. This is the first time in the history of the Indian parliament that a minority government has been allowed to continue... if anyone is to be blamed it is your government."
"We want to defeat the government, not destabilise it," he said citing the examples of former prime ministers Chandra Shekhar, HD Deve Gowda and IK Gujral.
The BJP leader said he had never seen a government so paralysed.
The Manmohan Singh government was reduced to a minority when the Left parties withdrew its support over differences on the India-US nuclear deal.