Congress defends top brass, raises needle of suspicion on prevailing laws

Coming to the rescue of party top brass under criticism over the National Herald case, the Congress on Wednesday alleged that two types of laws - one for the government and the other for opposition - were presently functioning in the nation.

Taking a jibe at the ruling dispensation, Congress leader Satyavrat Chaturvedi alleged that there is a different law altogether when it comes to cases against the BJP leaders.

"The question that arises today is whether there would be two types of laws in the country one for the ruling party and other for the opposition. There is a different law when it comes to cases of Sushma Swaraj, Vasundhara Raje, Vyapam and it is different for the Congress Party," Chaturvedi told ANI here.

"Whatever is happening today, it is the result of the fluster of what has happened in Bihar... They (BJP) are playing politics of revenge, but we will not sit quietly," he added.

The Congress leader also alleged that the government was not interested in smooth functioning of the Parliament.

Congress leader Pramod Tiwari on his part said that the grand old party was not at all bothered and has full faith in the court.

"Can Mr. Jaitley explain this why the national executive members of 'Brahman' Swamy has filed this case? Why it has not come from an ordinary person other than the BJP? The person, Swamy, was thrown out of the BJP because of all these tactics," told ANI.

"We are not bothered. We have full faith in the court. We will face it. We are proud of our leader (Sonia Gandhi) who has said that I am the daughter of Indira Gandhi and I cannot be cow down like this. We will fight and have full faith in the judiciary as there is no case," he added.

Both the Houses of Parliament yesterday witnessed repeated adjournments following a ruckus by the Congress MPs over the National Herald case.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lambasted the Congress for disrupting the proceedings in both the Houses of Parliament without any reason.

Minister of State of Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi charged the Congress with politicising the National Herald case. He said the Congress has no issue to debate in the Parliament and, therefore, it is creating ruckus unnecessarily.

Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman said the Congress should not be worried if it had not done anything wrong in the case.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party vice-president Rahul Gandhi have been asked to appear in a Delhi Court on December 19 in connection with this case.

The summons were issued to them on a criminal complaint lodged by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy for alleged cheating and misappropriation of funds in acquiring ownership of now-defunct daily National Herald.

The Congress leaders own a stake as directors in YIL, registered as a charitable company, as per the complaint.

The complaint alleged corruption in the assigning of loan worth Rs. 90.25 crore owed to the Congress by Associated Journals Limited (AJL), publisher of the National Herald, to YIL for Rs. 50 lakh.