Court case alleges Gandhis misused party funds – Congress stalls parliament

Naidu, who also addressed a press conference, accused the Congress of using Parliament to “intimidate and silence” the judiciary after the Gandhis were not given relief by court in the Herald case.

The Delhi High Court had on Monday dismissed the plea of the Gandhis to quash the summons issued to them by a trial court on Swamy’s complaint regarding the acquisition of National Herald and asked them to appear before trial court on Tuesday. Congress party leaders defended the Gandhis on Tuesday, saying they didn’t benefit personally from the transaction and only sought to revive the newspaper.

The magistrate, however, told the defence counsel to ensure that all the accused appear before the court on the next date of hearing on December 19. “Someone tell me what is your issue”, she said.

When asked if the blocking of the GST bill in Parliament was a reaction to the National Herald case, Chidambaram said that the GST issue was not linked to the case in any way.

In the Rajya Sabha, TMC’s Derek O’Brien repeated the Congress” “political vendetta charge.’ The disruptions provoked Naidu’s junior Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi to dub the Congress as anti-development.

“This is the way the government functions”. The court will hear the case on December 19. “They can challenge the orders in a higher court or face proceedings”, he said.

Let the Gandhis and the Congress fight it out legally, he said.

Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi (L) listens to her son and lawmaker Rahul Gandhi (R), at her husband and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s memorial, on the occasion of his 23rd death anniversary, in New Delhi May 21, 2014.

Reiterating that it was political vendetta as far as National Herald case was concerned, Congress vice president said on Wednesday that it was BJP’s way of doing politics. “The Enforcement Directorate has not issued any notice to them”, he said, adding, “The Income Tax authorities will follow their own procedure”.

While the Bharatiya Janata Party has reached out to the main Opposition party Congress on GST, the Arvind Subramanian Committee submitted its report on GST rate to the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

“Out of frustration over steadily declining political space and adverse judicial pronouncement and unable to accept the people’s mandate to the Modi government, the Congress is taking parliament to ransom”.