Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Friday attacked the Opposition alleging its “deceit” had ensured that key anti-corruption Bills could not be passed in the Parliament.
In an informal Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting, which he chaired for the first time, Rahul said that the BJP deceived the Centre as well as the Congress by not supporting anti-graft legislations. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who are part of the CWC, did not attend the meeting. However, Rahul sought PM’s assistance in getting the Bills, which are struck in Parliament, to get through with an Ordinance.
“Those in the Opposition have said that they are against corruption and want to fight it. But when the time came to pass the Bills against corruption, they did not support,” Rahul said. At the CWC, Rahul appreciated the “hardwork” done by party members in getting the Telangana Bill cleared amidst all odds and asked them to exhibit the same kind of urge to work together to retain the Congress-led Government at the Centre. He asked to look ahead now and forget the results of the Assembly and focus on the preparedness of the lok Sabha polls with full enthusiasm.
Meanwhile, for the first time in a decade the party MPs failed to have an interaction with party president Sonia Gandhi in the last session of the 15th lok Sabha which concluded on Friday. Unlike in the past, there was no general body meeting of the Congress party in Parliament. Though the second phase of the Winter Session had 13 sittings, there was no occasion for an interaction between the party MPs and the Congress chief as also Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Generally, ahead of polls, Sonia used to invite party MPs for dinner.
Congress leadership and the Government have been grappling with the Telangana issue all through the session and the Bill was passed by Parliament a day before sine die. lately, Sonia has stopped interacting with partymen through her column in party mouthpiece Congress Sandesh, an initiative taken by her a decade back.