Sushma faces Cong attack

Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj is under attack from the Congress a day after she alleged that UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi “instigated” her party MPs to create disturbances during her speech.

While senior Congress ministers P. Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal, Manish Tewari on Wednesday disapproved Ms Swaraj’s allegations, RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav asked “who is Sushma Swaraj to comment on Soniaji.”
Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar refused to respond to questions over the BJP’s decision to boycott meetings convened by her and parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath.
“I don’t want to discuss the matter in public,” she said.
Finance minister P. Chidambaram and information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari rejected as “completely baseless” Ms Swaraj’s contention that Mrs Gandhi had prevented her from speaking in the Lok Sabha and said the “unjustified” and “virulent” personal attack on the Congress president was condemnable.
They said Ms Swaraj’s contention was not substantiated by the visual proceedings of the Lok Sabha and it was “sad” that she levelled the allegations.
“I was present in the House and my other colleagues were also there... The entire broadcast of that time was telecast by some channels later in the day... There is no visual to show that the Congress president interrupted Swaraj or did anything else to prevent her from speaking,” Mr Chidambaram told a press conference here.
“The allegations are completely baseless and we reject these. I do not think Congress did anything... Such virulent attack is unjustified. I am sorry she (Swaraj) made the allegations,” he said.
Mr Tewari said it was “sad” that Ms Swaraj had made a personal attack on Mrs Gandhi and that it is “condemnable”.
He said “The Leader of the Opposition has used very objectionable words in her press conference. Nothing can be more condemnable than saying that the Congress president was inciting the Congress members to disrupt the house and create a ruckus.”
Taking a dig at Ms Swaraj, Mr Chidambaram said she also would have thought later that she should not have made such allegations.
On the BJP’s decision to boycott meetings to be convened by the Speaker and the parliamentary affairs minister, Mr Chidambaram said it was a “sad” development for the democracy.
Ms Swaraj, also the senior leader of the main Opposition BJP, had to cut short her speech in the Lok Sabha on Tuseday, had alleged that she was prevented from speaking as Mrs Gandhi “instigated” ministers.
Communications minister Kapil Sibal told a private TV channel, “We don’t expect Sushma to apologise because we can’t expect anything from a party that doesn’t believe in parliamentary democracy.”
Mr Sibal also called Ms Swaraj’s comments in the Lok Sabha a “breach of trust.”
In Patna, Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav said “Who is Sushma Swaraj to comment on Soniaji and the UPA government...She need not give certificate to the Central government,” he said.