Political vendetta coming out of PMO, says Rahul

In a bid to ensure that the Bill clears Parliament in the current session so as to meet the April 1, 2016, target for roll out of the GST, Modi held talks with Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh.

The Telegraph quoted Congress party sources as saying that Rahul would not seek bail as he is “convinced” that the Narendra Modi-led government “plotted” the legal trouble for his mother and himself.

Later, after Parliament was adjourned, Mr. Gandhi directed Mr. Singhvi and senior leader Kapil Sibal, who was also present in the first meeting, to explain the case to the Congress MPs, in what they called a “briefing session”.

Mohammad Salim, a CPM Lok Sabha MP, stressed that Parliament was meant for “raising issues concerning people’s sufferings, national policy issues and worldwide issues that impinged directly on Indian people’s lives”.

In his post, Jaitley countered the Congress’s allegation about “political vendetta” being behind the court summons to Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case. “I am the daughter-in-law of Indira Gandhi”.

The GST Bill is supposed to be a big boost to ease of doing business in India and all kinds of merchants will benefit from the passage of the bill, which does away with the current state sales regime. Echoing similar sentiments, a combative Sonia Gandhi, thundered: “Why should I be scared of anyone?”

The BJP has also been working on parallel lines.

A day earlier, party president Sonia Gandhi set the tone.

As for the Congress, the initial talk of constructive cooperation has given way to despair provoked by the fast tracking of the investigations against the top Congress leaders.

The Congress hopes that Rahul’s move will work in similar favour.

The Samajwadis and the BSP have adopted an unstated policy of keeping an equal distance from the Congress and the BJP in the run-up to the Uttar Pradesh elections.

Union ministers Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and M. Venkaiah Naidu (extreme left and right) with Rajya Sabha deputy chairman P.J. Kurien and Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad before paying tribute to C. Rajagopalachari on his birth anniversary at Parliament House in New Delhi on Thursday.

The finance minister’s remarks came in the wake of the Congress refusing to let go, saying that the Herald case was a result of the BJP’s vendetta politics. Congress is liable to answer as to how property taken from government and bringing it to a company and then becoming owners was justifiable, he said, adding they are free to knock the door of higher courts if they feel injustice has been meted out to them. Even as the political slugfest continues, in all likelihood the confrontation approach has overtaken the conciliatory approach in both parties. The nation may have to wait for the GST bill.