Time for Congress to introspect: Jaitley

The Congress party needs to introspect as it was under pressure and its own leaders were speaking out, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said here Wednesday.

"A section of the leadership of the Congress party, because of its inability to lead, has been under pressure," Jaitley said following Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi's aggressive behaviour in the Lok Sabha when he along with other party MPs advanced to the speaker's podium demanding a debate on the rising incidents of communal clashes in the country.

"Day after day, established leaders of the party are speaking out but for that you need not drag the house or the presiding officer into the debate. If you want to show yourself as doing something, it will be better if you lead your own party rather than develop a contrived aggression against the functioning of the house, " Jaitley said.

"It's time for the Congress party to introspect itself," he added.

Taking a dig at Gandhi's accusation that Speaker Sumitra Mahajan was not allowing the opposition to speak, Jaitley said: "The Congress is saying they are not being allowed to talk but there are some leaders in the party who do not speak at all in the house and yet are leveling such allegations."

"The Congress party has participated in every discussion. At times they have disturbed the house and not allowed it to go on. There is not a single instance where they have not been allowed to raise issues."