New Delhi, June 25 (IANS) Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh Saturday said failure to prevent demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992 and the pre-poll alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) were the past mistakes of his party in Uttar Pradesh.

 
 "The two major mistakes Congress had committed in the past was... one, allowing Babri mosque to be demolished, and two, pre-poll alliance with the BSP, of which the latter took advantage," Digvijay Singh said on the talk show 'Aap ki Adalat' on India TV.
 
 Asked about social activist Anna Hazare's plans for an indefinite fast beginning Aug 16 if the Lokpal bill was not passed, the Congress general secretary appealed to him not to go ahead with a hunger strike, but to wait for its final outcome after consultations with general public by a parliamentary standing committee.
 
 "I will request Annaji with folded hands not to sit on fast, wait for the cabinet draft to go to parliament, and from there to the parliament standing committee, which will invite opinions from the general public," the Congress leader said.
 
 Digvijay Singh also opposed bringing the prime minister under the Lokpal's purview, saying unelected persons should not have the power to dislodge an elected prime minister of the country.
 
 "Five persons sitting in a drafting committee cannot claim to represent 100 crore Indians," he said on Hazare and his team of civil society representatives on the joint committee drafting the Lokpal bill.
 
 "We should understand an elected PM cannot be dislodged by an individual, who is himself not elected, and who could come under external pressure or be driven by personal prejudice. There has to be a defence mechanism in place," he added.
 
 Lashing out at Baba Ramdev, Singh once again called the yoga guru a "maha-thug" (cheat), saying he converted his yoga and ayurveda expertise into a business.
 
 "He is not a saint. A saint cannot be a businessman. He has made yoga into a business collecting money for people. I stand by my comment that he is a 'maha-thug'," Singh said.
 
 On party leader Rahul Gandhi, Singh said he wanted to see the youth icon as prime minister during his lifetime, but quickly added that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has performed well.
 
 "It is my wish to see Rahul Gandhi as prime minister during my lifetime. But it will depend on the political situation of the country."
 
 He said Manmohan Singh had done the country proud as an academician, bureaucrat, finance minister and now as prime minister.
 
 "In 2009, the Congress won the Lok Sabha polls from most of the metros and the credit goes to Manmohan Singh and his policies."