PTI
New Delhi, Oct 20: Launching a stinging attack on the BJP for targeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the nuclear deal, Congress on Friday demanded an apology from the saffron party saying it was not an insult to one person but to the entire country.
It also reminded the UPA allies that "bowing down to the collective decision is coalition dharma".
AICC Media Department Chairman M Veerappa Moily said the 'highly uncivilised and crude attack' by the BJP saying that he has 'lost his sense of balance' shows the desperation of the main Opposition party.
"The NDA is collapsing. There are no credible partners... There is a desperate search for issues and agenda," he said, demanding the BJP should apologise to the nation as the attack on Singh was 'not insult to one person but to the country'.
Singling out Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for attack, Moily recalled that Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the then Prime Minister, had said the post-Godhra violence was a national shame.
Moily said the BJP did not have the guts to make Modi resign and should not therefore talk of moral authority.
On questions concerning UPA allies speaking in different voices on the Indo-US nuclear deal, he told the allies that in a coalition, each party can hold a view but coalition dharma is bowing down to the collective decision.
"We are not afraid of the situation," he said, adding a collective view will emerge and "it will not be imposed."
"There is unity in diversity," he said and added that dictating to anyone was not coalition dharma.
Moily said the meeting of the UPA-Left committee on nuclear deal on October 22 would see further discussion and dialogue and expressed hope that a way out would be found.
Making a scathing attack on the BJP, he recalled that L K Advani as the then Home Minister had visited the CIA headquarters and the Vajpayee government was planning to go sign the CTBT at the cost of the sovereignty of the country.
"They have no moral right to speak against the Prime Minister," he said recalling that Singh was responsible for liberalisation of the economy in 1991, which set India on the growth path.