Lucknow: BJP today likened the Congress' rulein the country to the British regime, alleging the party had a "notion" that it will "never" get out of power, but with time the party lost power and became "irrelevant".
Union minister Prakash Javadekar attacking the Opposition over washout of the Monsoon Session also described Congress as "anti-poor, anti-progress and anti-democracy".
"Like British rule, Congress had a notion that they will never get out of power, but with time they lost power in states and became irrelevant," Javadekar here alleged.
Congress agenda always veered around the Nehru-Gandhi family. "Democracy is not in their nature," he further alleged. The senior BJP leader also claimed said that Congress had "decided right from the beginning" to stall the two Houses.
The main reason was that Congress was still unable to overcome their humiliating defeat in Lok Sabha elections. "Congress created a balloon against External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, but it deflated. They tried to raise the issue of Madhya Pradesh (Vyapam) and Rajasthan (Lalitgate), but failed in their attempt," he said.
He said while Congress cried foul over suspension of 25 MPs from Lok Sabha, they got 125 MPs "unnecessarily arrested" during Emergency days and never apologised.
"This we will tell the people. Congress is hell bent on destroying the country," he alleged.
The Union minister also downplayed SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav's sudden breaking ranks with Congress in Parliament and said it should not be seen through the prism of CBI probe into corruption charges against a former NOIDA chief engineer.
"Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has not given any clean chit (to chief engineer Yadav Singh). If you see the footage in which the question was asked and the manner in which Jaitley responded, its meaning will become clear," Union Environment and Forest Minister Prakash Javadeker told reporters here.
His comments came against the backdrop of Uttar Pradesh unit of BJP continuously alleging that the tainted chief engineer was patronised by both the previous BSP regime and current SP government.
Javadekar was asked to comment on BJP launching a campaign against Yadav Singh after which a CBI inquiry was ordered and at the same time the Finance Minister not saying anything against Yadav Singh while Lalitgate and Vyapam issues were raised in Parliament.
To a specific query whether the reply given by Jaitley was in view of the equation in Rajya Sabha where NDA does not have a majority, he said, "All I will say is that CBI inquiry will be conducted impartially and those involved will be exposed."
Javadekar said, "I was there sitting next to him (Jaitley). It was asked that whether Mulayam's U-turn was because of Yadav Singh episode. Then Jaitely smiled and posed as to how it was related to Mulayam."
During the just-concluded Monsoon Session of Parliament, the SP supremo broke ranks with the opposition which was been agitating over the Lalit Modi row and the Vyapam scam, saying, "Enough is enough...We will not back you if you keep protesting."
His U-turn came as a surprise in the political circles as Mulayam had last week extended his party's support to Congress after 25 of its members were suspended by the Speaker.
The Allahabad High Court had on July 16 ordered a CBI probe in the Yadav Singh case, after which the SP government moved a petition in the Supreme Court against the high court order.
The Supreme Court had on August 7 dismissed the petition of Uttar Pradesh government challenging the order of the Allahabad High Court directing CBI investigation into corruption charges against the former NOIDA Chief Engineer, saying the state government should instead be happy.
The Akhilesh Yadav government had suspended the Noida Chief Engineer on December 8, 2014, but had twice opposed the petition seeking CBI probe into his assets saying that since a judicial commission was already going into the matter, a CBI inquiry was not needed.
