NEW DELHI: BJP today squarely blamed the Congress for the disruption of the monsoon session because it was "enslaved" to the Gandhi family and announced that it will launch a campaign against the party in all its 44 Lok Sabha constituencies for paralysing Parliament "without" a cause.
Senior BJP leader and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley launched a sharp attack on the Congress top brass, saying they cannot accept power and authority going outside their family and dubbed as a "new low" the sight of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi rushing to the Well of the Lok Sabha yesterday.
On a day Prime Minister Narendra Modi set the tone for the ruling combine's belligerence by equating the Gandhi family's attitude with the mindset that caused Emergency, BJP announced plans to raise public awareness against Congress' strategy in Parliament.
"Congress has exhibited that it continues to be enslaved to a family. It is willing to compromise national interest and policy merely because the family is unable to digest its electoral defeat in 2014. There is popular disapproval of its policies of disruption without a cause," Jaitley told a press conference.
He also ridiculed Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi over his "rent a cause" approach, saying "he cannot make a distinction between parliamentary speech and sloganeering and the more he grows old, the more he is immature".
The minister said one Union Minister and four NDA MPs will hold public meetings and events in the constituencies of 44 Congress MPs and 9 from the Left parties, he told reporters hours after the monsoon session ended in a virtual washout.
As part of the campaign, he said awareness will be raised nation wide against both the parties with special focus on the Lok Sabha seats held by them.
He described Congress and the Left as key actors in the disruption and said the government was hopeful that the "hostility of public opinion" will force them to help in the passage of the GST bill, which could not be passed because of the disruption.
Government has indicated that it may reconvene the session, which was adjourned sine die today but not prorogued, for pushing its legislative agenda, especially the GST bill.