Jaitley Invokes Nehru, Reminds Congress Of Responsibility In Parliament

Amid the raging row over National Herald case, the Congress today asserted that the allegations and “insinuations” against party leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are “deliberately orchestrated”, “patently false” and “defamatory” as they have “not received a rupee”.

INC’s Twitter handle quoted senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and said: “They only write blogs, when we raise issues in Parliament, no action is taken”. Jaitley said in a Facebook post. “In fact, by putting a non-profit company as the dominant shareholder, we have ensured that not one rupee from the assets can go to any private beneficiary”, Chidambaram said, defending the move to transfer the shares of Associate Journalst Limited (AJL) to Young India, a company of which Sonia and Rahul are major shareholders.

The meeting came as Government decided to make a fresh bid to break the logjam.

History may not always repeat itself – or does so in the form of a farce, as Marx said – but even if the Congress under Sonia Gandhi is not what the Congress was under Indira Gandhi, the BJP also is not as much of a victor as it was previous year, as its massive defeats in Delhi and Bihar have shown. The invitaton according to the Congress was withdrawn at the instance of the Prime Ministers office. “(Prime Minister) Narendra Modi had himself opposed it many times”. The Congress did not accept the denial maintaining that this was an insult to Kerala.

“Their lawyers failed to convince the court that talked of “criminal contempt” by them in the case and not misguide the court…Congress failed to convince the courts and is now unnecessarily trying to create pressure on the courts by stalling Parliament proceedings”, he said.

On Monday, the Rajya Sabha was adjourned after repeated disruptions by the Congress over the issue of Kerala chief minister Oomen Chandy not being invited to an event where Modi was going to be present. But no discussion could take place as the House was adjourned till 3 pm.

The continuous disruptions in Parliament have led to delay in taking up of Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill that seeks to bring in a uniform indirect tax regime across the country. If this is Rahul Gandhi’s roadmap for reclaiming the Congress Party’s lost space then it certainly is a lost cause.

The Assam elections are poised to see a fight between the Congress and the BJP with both parties in the process of stitching up alliances with the local political groupings. The elections are to be held by April next year.