NEW DELHI: Reacting to the speech of Congress president Sonia Gandhi at the plenary session in the Capital, the BJP alleged that the Congress is suffering from ‘siege mentality’, like it had been during the days of Bofors scandal. “The Congress party is suffering from the mentality of a party under siege,” said BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman at a press conference here. “By using abusive language, Sonia has attempted to deflect attention from the failures of UPA-II. We shall definitely raise these questions on the public fora and make sure the Congress will answer,” Nirmala said, adding that Congress chief had indulged in “pretended aggression” to deflect attention from its failures in checking corruption, non-performance of the government by UPA-II etc.
BJP president Nitin Gadkari said in a statement: “Instead of answering calls from the people on core issues, we see her replicating the Congress conduct when they were under attack for the Bofors scandal.” She said the Congress has distanced the people from the ruling UPA Government and “the mood in the party is now to evade answers.” She said Sonia Gandhi in the ongoing plenary speech tried to divert attention by choosing abusive language against the Opposition and accusing it of political blackmail. It is aimed at diverting attention from failures of UPA-11, she said.
Defending the stalemate in Parliament over 2G the spectrum scam, she rebutted Sonia’s charge that the BJP had resorted to political blackmail. “Pranab Mukherjee has also chosen to say in a resolution that the principal Opposition party has led Parliament towards almost a subversion of the Constitution. These are not the ways in which the ruling party is expected to come with its answers to the people,” Nirmala said.
On the Congress’ corruption charges plaguing the BJP Government in Karnataka, Nirmala said the party was waiting for the report of its in-house inquiry. “Congress will never have a moral high ground on corruption. The party had allowed Ottavio Quattrochchi, who was accused in Bofors kickbacks accused), and William Anderson (Union Carbide Chief) to get away,” Sitharaman said.