Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday slammed BJP veteran Lal Krishna Advani for calling the UPA-II as "illegitimate" during the Lok Sabha debate on the Assam violence, saying his comments were "disgraceful and unfortunate."

While Sonia Gandhi for the first time lost her cool gesturing and shouting at the BJP benches, her MP son Rahul Gandhi had a different take on the issue when reporters sought his comments. "He is a senior person. He knows what he is saying. I do not want to comment," he said.

The Congress, however, mounted a scathing attack on Advani, with its spokesman Manish Tewari regretted that "he continues to fight the no-confidence motion of 2008 in his mind."

Tewari said Advani's comment was so shocking and insulting that even Sonia Gandhi got agitated. "Soniaji is leading the oldest party of India for the last 12 years. She knows very well when to intervene and when not to. When a senior BJP leader says that the government is illegitimate, then anyone who believes in democracy should condemn it," he said.

Though Advani finally withdrew his comment after vociforous protests by the ruling benches and a snub by the Speaker, Tewari said: "Specially when a situation has arisen which has been called sensitive even by the prime minister, making such comments to score political brownie points does not suit a senior politician like him."

In the House, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal ridiculed Advani for the lame alibi that he was referring to the 2008 confidence vote in the Lok Sabha and not the 2009 elections. He read out the rule that does not allow two matters to be taken up together, the way Advani has tried to reopen the case of three BJP MPs rushing into the House with stakes of currency notes on the confidence vote. Only matters of recent occurence can be raised through the adjournment motion, he added.