In a frontal attack on Congress president Sonia Gandhi in the Lok Sabha for moving a no-confidence motion against the National Democratic Alliance government, Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani on Monday said the opposition had failed to name a leader who could replace Atal Bihari Vajpayee as prime minister.

The No-confidence Motion: The Complete Coverage

He said there must be a provision under which the name of an alternative leader must be declared before such a motion was moved in the House, Advani said, recalling the failure of the opposition to provide an alternative government in 1998, when the Vajpayee ministry was defeated by a single vote.

If that was so, the opposition could not have brought the motion, he said.

He was, however, happy that the motion would give an opportunity to Vajpayee to spell out the achievements of the government.

Criticising Gandhi for the language used by her against the government while moving the motion, Advani rejected her accusation that the ruling coalition was undermining democracy. "I cannot use such a language and I am not used to it," he said.

Advani said it was the Congress that had thrown democracy to the winds in 1975 and imposed Emergency.

Gandhi shot back, saying those languishing in jails during the Emergency had written to the then prime minister Indira Gandhi pleading for their release.

This led to a furore in the House, with former prime minister Chandra Shekhar saying she should not make such a sweeping remark. If she had the letter, she should make it public, he said.

Advani said lakhs of people, including eminent personalities like Morarji Desai, Vajpayee and others were imprisoned during Emergency and asked Gandhi not make such an allegation to justify the imposition of the draconian measure.

Amid shouts, he asked the leader of the opposition to table the letter if she had it.

Bharatiya Janata Party MPs Vijay Kumar Malhotra and Kirit Somaiya questioned how she got the letter when she was not even an Indian national during the Emergency. This drew loud protests from Congress members.

In her speech, Gandhi had presented a picture to the world which only hurt India's image, Advani said.

Describing the 1998 Pokharan nuclear tests as "a turning point" in India's history, the deputy PM said the government was not taking all the credit for it.

But "it was Vajpayee who took the decision although there had been many prime ministers before him", he said.

Another milestone came when the government ensured a free, fair and transparent election in Jammu and Kashmir, he said.

He also listed creation of new states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttarachal as the achievement of the government. But he admitted that this would not have been possible without the cooperation of the opposition, as these measures required constitutional amendments.

Advani referred to the three articles that his Cabinet colleague Arun Shourie wrote in The Indian Express newspaper and said while reading them one got the feeling that India had really progressed.

He also referred to an article written by actor Amitabh Bachchan extolling the new, resurgent India.

He said if someone were to listen to Gandhi's speech he would get exactly the opposite impression.