PM Narendra Modi equated Congress' attitude about protests in Parliament to Emergency at a meeting of NDA leaders (Press Trust of India photo)
With protests that prevented Parliament from functioning every day of its nearly three-week session, the Congress has rivalled the assault on democracy during the Emergency, the Prime Minister told his party and allies today. The PM asked his ministers and lawmakers to launch a campaign to inform the public that the Congress is impeding economic growth by stalling Parliament, which has forced the suspension of key reforms.
"India stands educated now about the Congress and the family that controls it," said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Referring to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi front-lining her party's protests in Parliament, he said, "This is the first time in history that the supreme leader of a mainstream party entered the well of the house."
Lawmakers from the coalition government marched today outside Parliament to accuse the Congress of holding the country's economic agenda ransom.
The monsoon session of Parliament ended today with important legislation including the landmark Goods and Services Tax (GST) forced into suspension because the Congress refused to call off protests demanding the resignation of three top BJP leaders including Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj on charges of corruption.
The leaders have denied all wrongdoing. The
Foreign Minister made a statement in Parliament yesterday rejecting the accusation that she misused her office to furtively assist tainted cricket mogul Lalit Modi obtain urgent travel papers from the UK last year.
Though Mr Gandhi embarrassingly led his party to its poorest result in last year's election, the Congress and he have appeared vastly reinvigorated by "Lalitgate" as the scandal around the cricket magnate has been dubbed.
The delay in the passage of the GST bill will make it tougher to meet a deadline of next April for its launch. The PM has the option of calling a special sitting of Parliament to pass the bill before the next scheduled session in the winter. The Finance Minister said today a decision has not yet been taken on this.