Congress inventing reasons to block parliament: Naidu

Reiterating that the Narendra Modi government has nothing to do with the National Herald case, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday said the Congress party was inventing reasons to disrupt parliament.

He told reporters here that it has become a habit of the Congress to stall parliament on some issue or the other.

"They don't know what they are doing and for what they are striking. They are inventing reasons for disrupting parliament," he said.

Claiming that the country is making progress under Modi's leadership, Naidu said the opposition party was unable to digest this and hence was stalling key bills in parliament.

Naidu advised the Congress not to bring court matters on the roads. He said the political parties should guide people and provide leadership but taking out processions over court summons and burning effigies of the prime minister amounts to insulting courts. He described it an indirect pressure on the judiciary.

He also wondered how the bail granted on Saturday by a Delhi court to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case could be celebrated as victory.

The central minister said Modi had nothing to do with the case as it was filed in 2012 when Manmohan Singh was the prime minister.

Naidu recalled that when Modi as chief minister of Gujarat received summons by Special Investigation Team, he appeared before SIT without any procession and disruption in either parliament or in Gujarat assembly.

"The Congress party says that the government is targeting opponents but people know who targeted opponents, murdered democracy, sent lakhs of people to jails and muzzled the voice of press," he said, adding that Congress has no right to criticize the government.

Naidu also flayed the Aam Admi Party (AAP) for making baseless allegations against Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to divert people's attention from the charges they are facing.

"Arun Jaitley is the most popular, dynamic, honest and capable minister with most impeccable character," he said.