Vendetta shadow over Winter Session .
New Delhi : The much hyped ‘chai pe charcha’ between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress president Sonia Gandhi along with former prime minister Manmohan Singh, which was supposed to bring a semblance of bipartisanship to the proceedings of the winter session of Parliament, seems to have come a naught. It is back to the same old acrimonious ways. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has directly targeted the prime minister’s office for the National Herald case. “Pure political vendetta coming out of the PM’s office… It is their way of doing politics… I have full faith in judiciary. We will see at the end what comes out. Truth will come out,” he said outside Parliament on Wednesday afternoon.
Both the houses were frequently adjourned during the day and no business could be transacted. With December 19 set as the date for the appearance of the Gandhis in the trial court, it appears unlikely that calm would be restored in Parliament till then, and the shadow of a monsoon session type wash out also hangs over this session.
“This may appear as a personal matter, but we cannot afford to be seen as opposing the Congress, because this would only end up strengthening the BJP,” said a senior non-Congress-non BJP leader. With Wednesday being the Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s birthday there was an extra show of bonhomie by the non-BJP parties, especially the Trinamool Congress, which has been otherwise expressing itself against disruptions, by joining the Congress protests against political vendetta. Lawmakers of the Trinamool Congress even walked out of the Lok Sabha to show support. The party also protested in the Rajya Sabha. Member Derek O’Brien said in the Upper House, “When there is open political vendetta not only here, but all across the country, what are we left to do?”
Naidu attacks Congress: Meanwhile, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu stepped up the government’s attack on the Congress. He told reporters: “Democracy is indeed in danger and there is indeed vendetta. The Congress is taking ‘revenge’ on people for its Lok Sabha poll defeat by trying to stall development by blocking Parliament.’’ Naidu maintained that Subramanian Swamy, the BJP leader who is the complainant in the case, was not in the saffron party when he had lodged it. “The Congress is trying to intimidate and silence the judiciary by practicing mobocracy,” he added. Congress hits back: The Congress rejected the government’s charge that it was practicing ‘mobocracy.’ ‘‘The fight is both political but equally legal. It is a fundamental misconception to think that a legal fight cannot have a political pattern, or a political fight cannot have a legal pattern. Both are valid,” said party spokesperson Abshishek Manu Singhvi.
He said that in the context of the political vendetta charge the Congress contention is that in respect of the National Herald case the initiation of these proceedings across the country in different fora by different persons in different form is done directly at the behest of the Government, either directly or through proxies. “At the end of the day, Dr. Swamy is nothing but a proxy. The Government is keeping up deniability, it is keeping good-cop, bad-cop theory going on but nobody is fooled that either directly or through such proxies, such initiatives are being taken. Such misadventures have been the name of the game for the last 20 months,” he charged. Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge raised the issue in the House, accusing the government of “intimidating the opposition.”We are not against the judiciary. We are protesting against your intent to oppress,” said Kharge. “This is happening to the entire Opposition. If someone doesn’t agree with you, you try to harass them,” the Congress leader added.
