Thursday, May 12 2005 20:54 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Expressing regret over Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA (United Progressive Alliance) chairperson Sonia Gandhi's attack on the Opposition, NDA today (May 12, 2005) decided to bring out a "list of failures" of the UPA Government to mark its first year in office.

A 90-minute meeting of top NDA (National Democratic Alliance) leaders, chaired by former Prime Minister and alliance chairman Atal Bihari Vajpayee, attacked the ruling coalition for "ridiculing" the Opposition's Parliament boycott "instead of understanding its agony", BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) spokesperson Sushma Swaraj told reporters in New Delhi.

Swaraj said the alliance leaders expressed regret that the Government's attitude towards the Opposition remained "objectionable and unchanged" despite the boycott of Parliament.

"While its attitude within Parliament was humiliating, it has not undergone any change outside as well. The Prime Minister has said that we have not been able to digest our defeat while Sonia Gandhi says the protest is aimed at diverting attention from our internal problems," she said.

The BJP deputy leader in Rajya Sabha, who was flanked by NDA convenor George Fernandes and other alliance leaders, said its decision to boycott both Houses was not "happily taken".

"It was to express our sense of agony that even leaders who have spent over 50 years in Parliament chose to keep away from it. Instead of understanding our pain, they are ridiculing us. This poses a question mark on democracy itself," she said.

Swaraj said while the UPA Government would be bringing out a list of its achievements on May 22 to mark one year in office, the NDA would come out with a "list of failures" which would detail "each and every fault, mistake, failure, mischief and crime" of the Congress-led coalition.

"It will be released by Vajpayee and other NDA leaders at a luncheon press conference," she said.

The BJP leader said the meeting did not discuss either BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party) leader Mayawati's threat to reconsider ties with UPA or LJP (Lok Janshakti Party) leader Ram Vilas Paswan's fresh moves for Government formation in Bihar.

The meeting was attended among others by BJP president L K Advani, Ananth Geethe (Shiv Sena), Braj Kishore Tripathy (BJD) and Dinesh Trivedi (NTC).