Kota: Raising the level of attack against Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to a new high, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on September 4 accused him of "obfuscating" real issues and said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government was "afraid of a single woman" as it cannot reply to questions raised by her.

"Agar woh itni thakatwar sarkar hai to woh ek mahila se darti kyon hai (if it is so powerful a government, then why is it afraid of a woman)?" Gandhi said at a Congress rally after dedicating the sixth unit of Kota thermal power station to people.

Charging the Prime Minister of having failed to give a single reply to the questions raised by her in the Lok Sabha during the debate on the recent no-confidence motion, she said the motion was aimed at exposing and showing to the nation the flaws of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government... but Vajpayee responded only by skirting the questions with excuses.

"Kabhi Congress par to kabhi mujh par seedhe aarop lagate rahe (he kept making allegations some times on Congress and some times directly on myself)," she said, adding that Vajpayee could not reply as he had nothing to tell.

PTI