BJP says Rahul put forth demands where 'give and take' was impossible

The ruling party held press conferences in 28 cities across India to explain why GST couldn't be passed in the monsoon session

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday deployed its chief ministers, central ministers and spokespersons across the country to hold press conferences about the Congress party’s “obstructionist” politics during the monsoon session of Parliament.

Party leaders also said the session was washed out because Congress Vice -President Rahul Gandhi put forth three demands on which “give and take” wasn’t possible.

The press conferences, in 28 cities, had BJP leaders singling out Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi for “inability to digest the defeat of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections”.

In Delhi, Ravi Shankar Prasad, the minister for information technology and communications, alleged the politics of Rahul Gandhi was based on two principles — hit and run, spit and run.

Prasad said he didn’t want to join issues with Mallikarjun Kharge and Ghulam Nabi Azad, heads of the Congress in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, respectively, as the party’s obstructionism was under the instructions of Rahul Gandhi.

“Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi firmly believe either they or one of their retainers have a divine right to be the occupants of 7, Race Course Road (residence of the prime minister),” Prasad said.

He alleged it was under Rahul’s insistence that the Congress persisted with three demands — resignations of the Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh chief ministers and of external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj — on which “give and take” was not possible.

 

“It’s a basic principle of politics that one shouldn’t just know how to mount a horse but, more important, how to dismount. Rahul Gandhi mounted a horse which didn’t even have reins,” Prasad said.

He said the earlier, budget session was the most productive in several years and that is when Rahul Gandhi realised the Modi government would deliver on all its promises if it managed to get all its Bills passed. And, decided to adopt obstructionist politics.

The CM’s of Maharashtra, Haryana, Goa Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh also held press conferences in their state capitals. On the other hand, the BJP’s chief minsters of Rajasthan and MP, the two the Congress wants should quit, didn’t address the media.

Apart from this, central ministers Prakash Javadekar in Lucknow, Rajyavardhan Rathore in Jaipur, Rajiv Pratap Rudy in Hyderabad, Piyush Goyal in Ahmedabad, Nirmala Sitharaman in Chennai, Ananth Kumar and M Venkaiah Naidu in Bengaluru and others briefed the media in big cities, also showing a seven-minute video clipping to buttress their charges.