Congress trying to divert attention, government has no role in National Herald case

New Delhi: Hitting out at Congress for disrupting proceedings in Parliament, Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu today said the government had no role to play at all in the National Herald case in which Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul have been summoned to appear by the court.

"They should contest it in court. How can you hold the government responsible. It is totally unfair and irresponsible to fix it on the government as they could not face the truth.

They are now trying to blame the government," he told reporters outside Parliament.

Congress members, upset over the National Herald case, today paralysed Parliament protesting against alleged "vendetta politics" leading to repeated adjournments in Lok Sabha as well as Rajya Sabha.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Naidu said it was "totally unethical, unfair and undemocratic on the part of the Congress party to obstruct Parliament's functioning on account of the case which has been taken up by the judiciary, where the government has no role to play at all."

He said there is no political vendetta on the part of the government and it is steadfast focussing its attention on the issues of development, repairing the economy, bringing back administration and providing good governance.

Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the case was completely in the domain of the courts. By giving it the dimension that it is political vendetta, "are they (Congress) suggesting that the courts are now playing politics. What a shame Congress party," she said.

Naidu also referred to a Delhi court dismissing a criminal complaint seeking lodging of an FIR against Union minister V K Singh for his alleged "dog" remarks in the aftermath of burning alive of two Haryana Dalit children.

"They have raised the issue of V K Singh. What happened to V K Singh, how the court felt about it. The court has totally quashed it," he said. Naidu said Congress also raised the issue of intolerance and it has "boomeranged" on them. "They have been exposed on this count also."

With regard to the issue of Nepal, he said External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj gave an excellent response yesterday.

"We should not try to politicitise such larger issues concerning the national interest, that too issues of external relations. We should speak in one voice," he said, appealing to Congress not to disrupt Parliament.