Leader of the Opposition L K Advani today demanded that the Constitution be amended to make it mandatory for the Prime Minister to be a member of the Lok Sabha.
"I am personally of the view that the Constitution should be amended to make it mandatory for the Prime Minister to be a member of the Lower House," Advani said on the last day of sitting of the 14th Lok Sabha.
Advani, choose to attack Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, saying that by convention, most Prime Ministers in the past were members of the Lok Sabha but at present "we have had a Prime Minister who is not a member of the Lok Sabha".
"What devalued this Prime Minister's position further is that he was not in control of the UPA regime. It was obvious to our citizens, MPs of the Congress and its allies in the UPA, and also to its ministers that 10 Janpath and not 7 Race Course Road was the true seat of power.
"The latter (Manmohan Singh) held office, but with no authority, the former (Congress president Sonia Gandhi) had authority but no accountability to Parliament. This duality at the apex is the root cause of the UPA government's rudderless and indecisive performance," he alleged.
Stating that the 'cash-for-vote' scandal was the "darkest chapter of the 14th Lok Sabha", he said, "Both Prime Minister and Congress president have a lot to answer for this shocking episode, their silence is not a shield."
