Congress will raise issue of Modi's charge against ex-PM: Azad

The Congress party will raise in the Winter Session of Parliament the issue of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's charge that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and a host of other dignitaries including a former Vice President "conspired" with Pakistan to defeat the BJP in the Gujarat elections.

"We want to know what kind of conspiracy these leaders have indulged in? If this is true then action must be taken against them, and if not action must be taken against those who made such charges," Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said after a meeting of opposition leaders on the eve of the Winter Session of Parliament.

He also said that the Congress had never gone to participate in Pakistan's celebrations.

"But it is the Prime Minister who went to attend the wedding and birthday of Pakistan's leaders," Azad said, referring to Modi's visit to Islamabad in December 2015 to attend the wedding of Pakistan's then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's grand daughter which was also the birthday of Sharif.

Talking to the media, he said for BJP the priority is elections and not Parliament as it does not believe in democracy.

"We will also raise the issue of delay in Parliament's Winter Session which has been called only for 10-12 days," Azad said.

Attacking the BJP for the delayed and shorter Winter Session, the Congress leader said that "the session, which was supposed to end, is starting now".

"Government did it deliberately because the Prime Minister and his entire cabinet was busy in Gujarat elections. For this government the Parliament is not a priority but elections are," he said, adding that for the last three and half years this government has been busy contesting elections.

"They don't have any interest in running Parliament and don't have trust in democracy," he accused.

The meeting of the opposition leaders was attended by Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge, Anand Sharma, Jyotiraditya Scindia, National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, SP's Naresh Agrawal, CPI's D. Raja, TMC's Derek O'Brien, NCP's Tariq Anwar and RJD's J.P. Yadav.

The Congress leader also said the way in which Modi took out a road show after casting his vote in Ahmedabad "we want to know which kind of new code of conduct the Election Commission has brought so that the Prime Minister can violate it"?

"PM must give answers on all these issues in Parliament," Azad added.

--IANS

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