Indeed, Mamata Banerjee with whose Trinamool Congress the Congress party is seeking an understanding to counter the BJP in Bengal, has been quoted as saying: “It is sad that Sonia was asked to appear in court”.
Advertisement
Expressing sorrow over fresh Parliament disruptions, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Thursday asserted that democracy can not function at the “whims and fancies” of anyone, in a veiled dig at continuing protests by the Congress.
But as we have seen many times before, a career in politics is certainly not a character certificate. Meri Marji (I will do what I desire).
“These are clearly afterthoughts in order to delay GST, I have no doubt in my mind”, Jaitley said. “Does the country run like this?” he said. The country does not operate on its basis.
Mr. Modi said the Swachh Bharat mission was becoming such a movement.
The House was adjourned repeatedly because of the ruckus created by the Congress members soon after the House met for the day and Chairman Hamid Ansari mentioned about the 14th anniversary of dastardly terror attack on Parliament House.
Asked if the Congress would forge a grand alliance in Assam on the Bihar line, Gandhi said, “Tarun Gogoi and Anjan Dutta (APCC president) are in charge and they will decide”.
The scene was no different outside Parliament as Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi accused the Prime Minister’s office of political vendetta and claimed that the Centre was threatening the judiciary.
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.
Mr Gandhi also had an interaction with the women representatives of Self Help Groups (SHGs) in Assam, listening to their problems and assuring them that their issues would be taken up with the government. “We all know who is threatening the judiciary”, he added. Jaitley accused the Congress of “Goebbelsian propaganda” and wrote that “the government, so far, has not taken any punitive action” and that the ED has not issued any notice to the Congress leaders. “This is the way the union government tries to silence me”, he told the media Tuesday.
Political parties, he said, are entitled to collect funds for its political activities for which they get exemption from payment of income tax.
While Congress members did not allow the upper House to function over the issue, party lawmakers walked out in protest in the lower house.
Advertisement
Noting that the ministers had said they did not approve of his comments, he said a lack of apology from him meant that he was in fact being supported by the government.
