Relations between the government and the principal Opposition nosedived on the eve of the monsoon session of Parliament, after the Bharatiya Janata Party turned down Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's invitation to lunch, apparently in protest against the CBI's summons to Gujarat Home Minister Amit Shah.
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi accused the BJP of fielding “its senior leaders to pre-empt, influence and subvert an ongoing Supreme Court-initiated investigation.”
Mr. Singhvi said that by holding a press conference merely to defend Mr. Shah, against whom there were criminal charges, the BJP was “scaling new heights of illegal, unconstitutional and improper conduct.”
“It is also churlish and gravely irresponsible of the BJP to link an ongoing criminal investigation, involving the killing of three human beings, with the Prime Minister's invitation for lunch,” he added. Through the boycott of the invitation, “the BJP rejects the spirit of cooperation and constructive collaboration with which the Congress-led UPA government, though no less than the Prime Minister of the country reached out to them to create conducive conditions for attaining the full potential of the next Parliamentary session.”
Describing the BJP's press conference on Friday as “unprecedented,” Mr. Singhvi took a swipe at Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, saying: “First it was the Home Minister of Gujarat, running scared. Now perhaps his mentor is equally scared and has pressurised senior BJP leaders to obstruct an ongoing CBI investigation.”
“Has the entire BJP and its leadership, including senior lawyers amongst them, forgotten that it was no less than the highest court of the land which, in January 2010, transferred this very case from the Gujarat police to the CBI?”
