Congress protest right outside Parliament enters fourth day
By IANS,
New Delhi: Even as the Congress continued its protest for the fourth day on Friday over the suspension of 25 MPs by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi tore into External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s statement on the earlier day about extending humanitarian help to wife of former IPL chairman Lalit Modi.
Sushma Swaraj had said on Thursday that she was ready to face the consequences if helping Lalit Modi’s wife on humanitarian grounds was a crime.
“She (Sushma Swaraj) is an expert at indulging in theatrical politics,” said Sonia Gandhi before she joined her party colleagues protesting the suspension of 25 Congress MPs.
Rahul Gandhi alleged Sushma Swaraj’s family has “received money” from former IPL chairman Lalit Modi. “Whenever there is a robbery or stealing, a financial transfer takes place. There has been a financial transfer here as well. Sushma’s family has received money from Lalit Modi. She should tell the country exactly how much money Lalit Modi has paid her family to keep himself out of jail,” Gandhi said outside Parliament.
Sushma Swaraj on Thursday had told the Lok Sabha that she did not recommend to the British government to give travel documents to Lalit Modi. She also said the allegations against her of recommending travel documents for Lalit Modi were “wrong and baseless.”
Meanwhile, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi led the protest near Mahatma Gandhi’s statue in the Parliament complex. The protesters wore black bands on their arms.
On Monday, Mahajan had suspended the Congress MPs for five days for “willfully obstructing the business of the house” and not adhering to her repeated requests to observe the rules of the house.
Earlier, the Congress party tore into the Narendra Modi government, saying its “arrogance of power reached its zenith” when it asked Sushma Swaraj to “explain away her unpardonable impropriety, willful lies, criminal intent, gross misuse of office and patent conflict of interest in the garb of ‘humanitarian grounds’ to help Lalit Modi.”
Anand Sharma, senior party spokesperson and deputy leader Rajya Sabha, in a statement said the Modi government “first murdered democracy by suspending 25 MPs and effectively expelled the entire opposition from Lok Sabha” and also accused Modi government and Sushma Swaraj of “once again misleading the country shamelessly and unabashedly.”