Monday, March 7 2005 14:32 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Leader of Opposition and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president L K Advani today (Mar 7, 2005) met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and impressed on him the need to ensure the appointment of "competent and honest" advisors to the Bihar Governor under Central rule to tackle corruption and criminalisation effectively.

At a 15 minute one-to-one meeting with the Prime Minister at his South Block office, he expressed apprehension that those who have been "perpetuating jungle raj" in the State for the past 15 years "still have the evil design to rule by proxy through Advisors", sources said.

He urged the PM that the selection of the Advisors should be such that they should be "capable and honest to effectively handle the twin evils of corruption and criminalisation that plagues the State", the sources said.

The Prime Minister too stated, "There cannot be two opinions in this regard," they said.

The leader of Opposition also urged the Prime Minister to "fix responsibility" for the "assault on democracy" in Goa and Jharkhand and demanded the recall of the Governors of the two states - S C Jamir and Syed Sibtey Razi - respectively.

The Prime Minister responded by saying that the Governors had acted on the basis of their assessment, the sources said.

The BJP Chief told him that they had "erred" in their assessment and hence should be recalled to safeguard the dignity of the high Constitutional office they were holding.

Advani had on Friday (Mar 4, 2005) shot off a letter to the Prime Minister charging him and senior Congress MPs with "avoiding accountability to Parliament" and demanding a probe to determine the guilty behind the "assault on democracy" in the State and suitable action against them.

However, in an interview to a television channel last night (Mar 6, 2005), the former Deputy Prime Minister said Singh was "not aware" of the happenings in Jharkhand beforehand but he should have certainly been in the loop and taken "corrective action".