03-23-2006, 11:14 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Victim of her own conspiracy: BJP </b>
Pioneer News Service / New Delhi
The BJP on Thursday said Congress president Sonia Gandhi's resignation as MP and chairperson of the National Advisory Council amounted to the<b> "confession of a culprit caught red-handed trying to subvert the Constitution and Parliament".</b>
The party also made it clear that it would strongly oppose any ordinance redefining office of profit to save members of Parliament from disqualification and even if a bill was brought after the Parliament was reconvened, it was against giving retrospective effect to such legislation.
The party's future course of action would be decided at a meeting of the party's central office-bearers here on Friday.
But general secretary Arun Jaitley indicated that the party is not inclined to seek the resignation of Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and other MPs, who have been accused of holding offices of profit that could disqualify them from Parliament's membership.
<b>"Every individual has his own case, which they should present before the Election Commission and the President. It is for the Commission to decide,"</b> he said.
<b>Ridiculing Congress efforts to project it as "an example of renunciation", Mr Jaitley said Ms Gandhi had been left with no choice after the vigorous protests lodged by the BJP-led Opposition with the President.</b>
"The course of action adopted by the Government was so outrageous that our immediate response was also very firm and this firm response has led to this sequence of events," said Leader of Opposition LK Advani in Varanasi. He was on a visit to the Sankat Mochan temple along with party chief Rajnath Singh and the two returned to Delhi on Thursday night to discuss the day's development's with senior party leaders.
In Delhi, as Congress whipped up a campaign to project Ms Gandhi as a martyr, the BJP was confident that her grandstanding would cut no ice with the people. <b>"Sonia Gandhi has fallen victim to her own conspiracy and the Cong-ress politics of revenge had recoiled back, " Mr Jaitley said.</b>
Asked if BJP's own leaders like VK Malhotra, who have also been accused of holding offices of profit would step down as well, Mr Jaitley said, "The party stand is that the law should be applied uniformly against everyone." He said that the UPA Govt had handled the whole issue in "a pathetic and ham-handed manner."
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Pioneer News Service / New Delhi
The BJP on Thursday said Congress president Sonia Gandhi's resignation as MP and chairperson of the National Advisory Council amounted to the<b> "confession of a culprit caught red-handed trying to subvert the Constitution and Parliament".</b>
The party also made it clear that it would strongly oppose any ordinance redefining office of profit to save members of Parliament from disqualification and even if a bill was brought after the Parliament was reconvened, it was against giving retrospective effect to such legislation.
The party's future course of action would be decided at a meeting of the party's central office-bearers here on Friday.
But general secretary Arun Jaitley indicated that the party is not inclined to seek the resignation of Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and other MPs, who have been accused of holding offices of profit that could disqualify them from Parliament's membership.
<b>"Every individual has his own case, which they should present before the Election Commission and the President. It is for the Commission to decide,"</b> he said.
<b>Ridiculing Congress efforts to project it as "an example of renunciation", Mr Jaitley said Ms Gandhi had been left with no choice after the vigorous protests lodged by the BJP-led Opposition with the President.</b>
"The course of action adopted by the Government was so outrageous that our immediate response was also very firm and this firm response has led to this sequence of events," said Leader of Opposition LK Advani in Varanasi. He was on a visit to the Sankat Mochan temple along with party chief Rajnath Singh and the two returned to Delhi on Thursday night to discuss the day's development's with senior party leaders.
In Delhi, as Congress whipped up a campaign to project Ms Gandhi as a martyr, the BJP was confident that her grandstanding would cut no ice with the people. <b>"Sonia Gandhi has fallen victim to her own conspiracy and the Cong-ress politics of revenge had recoiled back, " Mr Jaitley said.</b>
Asked if BJP's own leaders like VK Malhotra, who have also been accused of holding offices of profit would step down as well, Mr Jaitley said, "The party stand is that the law should be applied uniformly against everyone." He said that the UPA Govt had handled the whole issue in "a pathetic and ham-handed manner."
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