'Double engine govt' slogan hints at dictatorship: Yashwant Sinha

Panaji: The BJP's call to voters to cast ballot in favour of a 'double engine governmen't in poll-bound states, indicates a dictatorial tendency within the ruling party, Trinamool Congress vice president Yashwant Sinha said here on Monday.

Speaking at a press conference in Panaji, Sinha, a former senior BJP leader and an ex-Union Finance Minister, also said that India is too diverse a country for a "double engine" phenomenon to work. "Sometimes what happens with a double engine phenomenon, is that one engine goes one way and the other goes in a different direction. Double engine can pull you in different directions also. We are talking about a double engine government," Sinha told reporters.

"I want to tell you a serious thing. A very serious issue. If the central government or the BJP speaks about a double engine government, it means they want to run a dictatorship in Goa. It implies that there will be no government of another party anywhere. They are speaking about double engines vis a vis state governments," he said.

"Tomorrow, they will speak about double and triple engines when it comes to panchayats. How can this work? Our country has so much diversity that a double engine can never work. Ab initio, it is a wrong slogan," he also said.