Congress holding democracy to ransom over Herald case: Jaitley

And what has stopping Parliament got to do with the case of National Herald?

A Delhi court on December 8 had directed Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Rahul and others to appear in person before it on December 19 in the National Herald case.

Rahul Gandhi, who interacted with women entrepreneurs in Guwahati and addressed grassroots workers of the Congress, said his party would return to power in Assam in the next assembly elections.

“Jaitley said the provocation for the Congress to stall the Parliament where the crucial GST bill is pending, was that the party leaders are not able to come out the “chakravyu” they have created”.

It was decided in the meeting that the Congress would discuss the issue internally, following which another meeting with the government could take place. “Tax authorities have not passed any assessment order”, he said at the Aaj Tak Agenda programme.

“In the history of democracy, no leader has ever said such a thing”.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley may now introduce the GST bill in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. The Congress had conveyed its three objections to the Bill when Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited his predecessor Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi for tea to discuss the GST Bill at the beginning of this session.

The Congress has accused the government of targeting its leaders with allegations of corruption while not taking action against its own ministers and BJP chief ministers. Jaitley had subsequently met Azad and former Union minister Anand Sharma to give the government’s views on their demands.

But the National Herald case has put the government back in the driver’s seat.

He said the party has full confidence in the leadership of the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) and the chief minister and only they would decide about any alliance with any political parties in Assam. “Court exonerated him, he never used parliamentary forum, he never mobilised people to demonstrate, had he given a call, lakhs of people would have followed him but he did not do it because we respect Constitution, judiciary and the system”, he said.