New Delhi, Aug 4
The BJP on Tuesday hit back at
the Congress description of the suspension of its 25 parliamentarians
as "murder of democracy", saying there was "no democracy in the Congress
DNA" and the opposition party talking of democracy was akin to the
"devil quoting the scriptures".
"The Congress talking of
democracy is like the devil quoting scriptures. There is no democracy in
their DNA...the mother is the party president and son the vice
president. Will they teach us democracy?" Bharatiya Janata Party leader
and union minister Prakash Javadekar said.
"Sonia Gandhi and
Rahul Gandhi are responsible for the logjam in parliament. It does not
behove them to speak about democracy as they (the Congress) is the
mother of Emergency," the minister said.
He said the government
had been reaching out to the Congress to break the parliament logjam but
the opposition party was backing out.
The union minister said
that disruption of parliament proceedings by the Congress members was
"absolutely irresponsible behaviour".
Referring to the remarks of
Congress leaders that they were following the tradition set by the BJP
in disrupting the proceedings of parliament, Javadekar said the BJP
forced adjournments in 2010 over its demand for a joint parliamentary
committee.
He said that the demand for the resignations of the
then UPA ministers had been made by the BJP on the basis of
investigations and the Comptroller and Auditor General's reports.
"If there is corruption, the ministers have to resign," he said.
The
BJP minister said there was no comparison between the BJP forcing the
resignations of UPA ministers and the Congress demanding the
resignations of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan
Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje over their alleged help to former IPL
chief Lalit Modi and of Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh
Chouhan over the Vyapam scam.
Javadekar attacked the Congress
over the Emergency imposed in 1975 and said that press freedom was
curbed and thousands sent to jail.
"Their DNA has an Emergency
mindset. At least, they should learn parliamentary democracy. The ruling
party is reaching out, they are backing out," Javadekar said.
Sonia
Gandhi had on Tuesday described Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan's
decision to suspend 25 of her party MPs as "murder of democracy".
The
Speaker had on Monday suspended 25 Congress parliamentarians for five
days for "willfully obstructing the business of the house" and not
adhering to her repeated warnings to observe rules in the house.
Javadekar
said some parties, that on Tuesday joined the Congress protest against
the Speaker's decision, had faced suspension of their members in 1989
during the Rajiv Gandhi government when 63 members were suspended by the
presiding officer.
He said Congress members from the then united
Andhra Pradesh were suspended during the UPA rule on the issue of
creation of a separate state of Telangana.
Javadekar alleged that
the Congress was disrupting parliament proceedings due to its
"jealousy" towards the Narendra Modi government.
"They have not
digested their defeat (in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections). The Modi
government is working continuously. They (Congress) are not able to
digest the government's good work," Javadekar said.
