The BJP that had sought to distance itself from the court summons to Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case saying it was entirely a legal issue, ratcheted it up on Thursday after Congress MPs paralysed the Rajya Sabha for the third straight day, accusing the former of a political vendetta. In a Facebook post, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley frontally attacked the Congress president, saying India has not yet accepted the diktat that the “Queen” is above the law.
Mr.Jaitley’s riposte came after repeated adjournments of the upper House, the last of which came at 3 p.m. The Congress, he said, has created a chakravyuh (trap) from which it has to extricate itself by facing the court, not by disrupting Parliament. He also repeatedly described Young Indian – a charitable organisation, according to the Congress — as a real estate company, as it now owns Associated Journals Ltd properties round the country worth Rs.2,000 crore.
Rejecting the Congress’s accusation of a political vendetta against it by the government, he said – in what appeared to be a veiled threat – that the government has “so far not taken any punitive action”. “The Enforcement Directorate,” he said, “has not issued any notice to them. The Income Tax authorities will follow their own procedure... The government has passed no order in relation to the disputed transactions.”
Meanwhile, the Congress appeared on Thursday to be concerned that its point of view in the National Herald case – that its leaders, Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, were being “victimised” by the government — was not being adequately represented in the media. Having already taken an extremist position, the party cannot retreat now, and it is, therefore, now considering taking the battle to the streets, particularly on December 19, when Sonia and Rahul will have to appear before the court.
The Congress has charged that while the Centre refused to take cognisance of the corruption charges against the BJP Chief Ministers of Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, it has been using investigating agencies to hound Congress leaders.
