Sonia’s action in House shows level of Cong frustration: Naidu

New Delhi

Stepping up attack on Congress over the virtually washed-out monsoon session, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkiah Naidu today said Sonia Gandhi’s trooping into the well of Lok Sabha shows the level of the “frustration of that party”.

Alleging that Congress was blocking the development agenda of the government by not allowing passage of various important bills, Naidu said it was a challenge before democracy and vowed to expose the opposition’s “disruptive” agenda before the public.

Talking to PTI after the meeting of NDA Parliamentary Party, Naidu said Prime Minister Narendra Modi called upon MPs to reach out to the entire country and apprise people about the purpose behind obstruction tactics of Congress.

“The PM said there is a need to effectively counter their disinformation and also expose undemocratic, obstructive practice of the Congress,” he said.

Naidu said BJP, along with other NDA constituents, have decided to start a nationwide campaign to expose the anti-democratic behaviour of the Congress and counter its disinformation campaign.

“Senior ministers and MPs will go across the country. The programme will go on for a month. The primary focus will be on constituencies that elected those MPs who are obstructing the House and those blocking legislations,” Naidu said.

Sources in the BJP, meanwhile, said that the focus of the campaign will be on constituencies from where Congress and Left MPs have been elected.

“We will be forming groups of five MPs plus one minister.

They have to cover all these areas,” Naidu said when asked about the format of the group.

“We have majority in Lok Sabha, but not in Rajya Sabha.

It will also happen in some time and we will move forward,” he said when told that major legislations were being stalled.

Naidu, however, parried a question about the possibility of the government calling a special session and merely said, “everybody knows what is in the Constitution”.

Attacking Congress over disruption, he said, “Yesterday, Congress President (Sonia Gandhi) going herself to the Well of the House shows the levels of the frustration of that party.” He alleged that the Congress has flouted all the rules, regulations and decorum of the House.

“They have even obstructed Speaker and Deputy Speaker from performing their responsibilities. They have threatened them with organised protests in front of Speaker’s House, burnt her effigies thereby issuing a threat that if you follow the rules, we will punish you. They have thrown papers on the Deputy Speaker. They have blocked the minister’s reply also.

“All this is aimed at obstructing the growth of the country. They do not want the Modi government to succeed. They made all allegations against Sushma Swaraj for last two months, made speeches but were not willing to allow Swaraj to respond.”

Maintaining that the country has given a massive mandate to Modi to save the country from the economic “gloom” that was created by the Congress party, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister said that people taught a lesson to the Congress party for its “misdeeds, corruption and non-performance”.

Claiming that the Modi-led government in the last 14 months have taken several initiatives to revive the economy, he said the economy is now back on rails.

“Investments are coming. GDP is growing. Confidence among the people has gone up. International rating agencies are giving higher ratings for India and institutions like World Bank, ADB are forecasting India’s growth at two percentage points more than China in the coming days. India’s image and prestige have gone up internationally. The Prime Minister has in a short term emerged as a world leader.

“Congress is not able to digest it. They want to defame the government. So using their lung power, they have obstructed Parliament,” he said.

Wondering what sort of democracy it is, Naidu said that the BJP feels that Swaraj issue is only an “excuse” for Congress, whose real purpose is to stop the GST Bill.

“They pushed the country backward when in power and now not allowing the country to move forward. They feel that it is their birthright to rule the country. Now that people have rejected them, they want to teach the people a lesson.

“But we will fight it out. Democratic opinion is going against them. We want to take up a nationwide campaign. We will particularly focus on those constituencies, whose MPs are obstructing the legislative proposals in Parliament particularly those from Congress and Left. You can understand somebody opposing but obstructions indicate evil intentions,” he said.

PTI