Newdelhi:The BJP on Saturday demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh resign if he “has any self respect”, as it believes embarrassing public outburst of Rahul Gandhi against the ordinance to shield convicted lawmakers from disqualification indicates the lack of trust of the Ruling Party, in the government decision.

Surprisingly, even Congress ministers in the UPA government, including Jayanthi Natarajan and Shashi Tharoor, openly seconded Rahul’s personal opinion that the ordinance is “complete nonsense” and that “it should be torn up and thrown away”, which means they too by default are questioning the PM-led cabinet’s decision to pass an ordinance to nullify a Supreme Court verdict seeking immediate disqualification of convicted MPs and MLAs.

“It is a desperate damage-control exercise. It’s only when the revulsion has been built that the Congress is trying to cut its losses. It is a belated realisation of what the Congress now calls nonsense. The heads which brought out this nonsense twice over the last month must roll. It is a charade which shows the government can make a mistake, but the Congress’ first family doesn’t,” said BJP leader Arun Jaitley.

The BJP also hurriedly called a press conference and fielded spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi, who said, “If Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has any self respect left, I think he should call it a day, because the supercop who can correct the system has arrived on the scene.”

She, however, stated that in the past too the prime minister’s authority has been questioned.

The party is of the view that if the Congress heir apparent Rahul had such strong views, he should have prevailed upon the government at the time of the bringing of the legislation, which the UPA introduced in Lok Sabha in the monsoon session.