Leader of Opposition L K Advani on Tuesday accused the UPA government of not celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Pokhran-II nuclear blasts "due to animus towards the NDA" even at the cost of showing "disrespect" to former prime minister Indira Gandhi who took the first step towards making India a nuclear weapon state.

Addressing a well-attended rally at the National College grounds, Advani said that this "distressing move" not only amounted to showing "disrespect" to Dr Homi Bhabha and other scientists but also the Indian armed forces who contributed to the Shakti series of nuclear tests on May 11-13, 1998. "This was one single step that made the world view India with respect among the comity of nations," he said.

He launched an attack on both the UPA and its Left allies for practising "directionless" economic and foreign policy. "The UPA government wants to sign the nuclear agreement with the US but the Left are dead against it as if the Manmohan Singh government was signing an agreement with the devil," Advani said. He listed three things that paved the way for India to become one of the leading economic powers though poverty and backwardness still dog the country six decades after Independence. According to him, adoption of parliamentary democracy by the country's leadership and the will to throw the yoke of authoritarianism imposed by Indira Gandhi in 1975 was one of the major factors. Dismantling of the licence permit quota raj in the 1990s and the Pokhran-II nuclear blasts defined India's race towards becoming a global power.

But matters, he said, had taken a turn for the worse with the UPA government engaged in pitched battles with Left allies over price rise, economic policy and the Indo-US nuclear deal. "But I hold both the Left and the UPA equally responsible for harassment of the public with steep rise in prices of foodgrains, pulses, cement and steel¿ and both must be punished by the people of this country," Advani said.

Asking the crowds to vote the BJP to power in the Karnataka Assembly elections, he blamed both the Congress and its one-time ally, the JD(S), for inflicting premature elections on the public.