There is likely to be no respite from the logjam in Parliament, especially the Rajya Sabha, with the Congress all set to obstruct the proceedings again. Among other issues, the Congress will rake up the alleged insult to Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who has not been invited to attend a Prime Minister’s function in the State.
A controversy has erupted over the alleged decision of Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP), an organisation of backward Ezhava community, to exclude Oommen Chandy from attending the unveiling of former CM R Sankar’s statue by the PM on Tuesday. AICC spokesman Abhishek Singhvi described the action as pettiness of the worst kind and said that Prime Minister should refuse to go to the function. When asked if the Congress could raise the matter in Parliament, Singhvi said, “We have all options open.”
“It is not only a transgression of protocol, but also that of cooperative federalism that is constantly trumpeted by the Prime Minister and his colleagues. The BJP has become a serial offender in almost all the Opposition-ruled States in humiliating democratically elected Chief Ministers. Be it then Haryana CM BS Hooda, who was heckled by BJP workers in presence of the PM, Nitish Kumar or Virbhadra Singh, the incidents seem to follow a pre-designed plot,” AICC chief spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala said.
On the ongoing National Herald controversy, the party also asserted that the allegations and “insinuations” against Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are “deliberately orchestrated”, “patently false” and “defamatory” as they have “not received a rupee”. Senior party leaders and legal luminaries P Chidambaram and Ashwani Kumar insisted that all transactions in question are legal and expressed confidence that both Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi will be “fully vindicated” through the judicial process.
“(There is) nothing wrong in this transaction. In fact, by putting a non-profit company as the dominant shareholder, we have ensured that not one rupee from the assets can go to any private beneficiary,” said Chidambaram defending the move to transfer the shares of Associate Journalist limited (AJl) to Young India, a company of which Sonia and Rahul are major shareholders. Sonia and Rahul have nothing to worry because “they have not received a rupee benefit,” the former Finance Minister said, while raising questions over the Modi Government’s role saying it had acted hastily on a “private complaint” to reopen a shut case.
Chidambaram has said that Young India is a non-profit company, which means not one rupee from AJl can be given to any one or can be received by the non-profit company. “In fact the AJl’s assets have been doubly secured today,” he said, adding there was “no illegality” as there was a need to secure the properties of AJl.
When it was pointed out to him that in the Young India company majority of the shares are held by Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, he said, “it is again reflection of the Congress structure.... the Congress was the lender and now it is a Congress organisation which is a lender. It is the same. The lender is a non-profit company. Much better.”