Kolkata, March 30 : Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Shourie on Monday said that Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh should not hesitate from joining BJP leader L. K. Advani in a public debate.

The public would know the ability of the person who deserves to be their prime minister, said Arun Shourie, who was here to participate in an interactive session organized by the Indian Chamber of Commerce.

"Dr. Manmohan Singh is not God. People of the country have the right to judge who has the ability to become the Prime Minister," said Arun Shourie.

"Dr Singh should be forced through media and citizen activism to accept the challenge issued by BJP leader L. K. Advani for a public debate," said Shourie while adding: "Important issues needed to be discussed and the people had the right to information, the right to know what the Prime Ministerial candidates thought on core issues facing the nation."

Shourie, on this occasion, also questioned the Election Commission on advising political parties on the selection of their candidates.

He said the Election Commission had no business issuing advisories to political parties on who should be a candidate, as it did in the Varun Gandhi's case.

"If at all the Election Commission wanted to do that, then the same advisory should go to all political parties, Shourie said and pointed out that "when candidates like Mukhtar Ansari with a long list of criminal cases against them were in the fray, then why was the Election Commission not issuing similar advisories them instead of singling out just the BJP." (ANI)