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[url="http://www.dailypioneer.com/305047/Siege-mentality-making-Congress-abuse-Opp-BJP.html"]Siege mentality making Congress abuse Opp: BJP[/url]

Launching a counter-attack on the Congress, which has used its ongoing plenary session for raking mud on the Sangh Parivar, the BJP on Sunday accused the ruling party at the Centre of deflecting attention from its failures by “abusing” the Opposition.



With Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party general secretary Digvijay Singh hurling a slew of charges on the main Opposition, the BJP hit back at the Congress, saying it suffered from a “siege mentality” and hence used “abusive” language against the Opposition to deflect attention from its failures.



“The Congress is suffering from a mentality of a party under siege. Sonia Gandhi’s speech sounds like the reaction of a party under siege. Instead of answering calls from the people on core issues, we see her replicating the Congress conduct when they were under attack for the Bofors scandal,” BJP president Nitin Gadkari stated.



Accusing the Congress of indulging in “pretended aggression” to divert attention from its failures in checking corruption, non-performance of the UPA-II dispensation, the party’s “alienation” from people and “mistrust” among its allies, Gadkari said, “We shall definitely raise these questions at various public fora and make sure the Congress answers (to these).”



Targeting Sonia Gandhi, Gadkari said that in speaking like an Opposition leader she (Gandhi) had “betrayed her complete failure at governance” as the leader of the ruling party and attempted to mislead the Indian people by voicing the “very same questions which have been asked of the Congress” by the Opposition in the Budget and the Winter Session of Parliament.



“Has she forgotten that she is the president of the party in power at the Centre?” Gadkari asked.



Pointing out that Sonia had failed to answer the BJP’s posers on a series of recent scams and called the main Opposition party’s demand for a JPC probe as political blackmail, Gadkari said, “Only the Congress party, which imposed the state of Emergency, can use such language for the legitimate demands of Opposition.”



BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman also defended the stalemate in Parliament over 2G spectrum scam and rebutted Gandhi’s charge. “Pranab Mukherjee has also chosen to say in a resolution that the principal Opposition party has led Parliament towards almost a subversion of the Constitution. These are not the ways in which the ruling party is expected to come with its answers to the people,” Sitharaman said.



The BJP also targeted Congress general secretary Digivijay Singh for his comments on Hindu terror. “Today we see Digvijay Singh speaking about things which, till yesterday, he Congress party wanted to distance itself from. Today, the Congress has provided an official forum for such talk,” the spokesperson said. She insisted that Singh should not be taken seriously as he had failed to prove his contentions about his talks with martyred ATS Chief Hemant Karkare.



The BJP alleged that the Congress allegations of a “conspiracy against secularism” were not substantiated. “I wonder where the conspiracy is happening. They are still not sure of their position on secularism.... What is their stand on secularism? Sonia has spoken about minority and majority fundamentalism. I have a feeling that Congress is having a churning on what constitutes terror in their definition,” Sitharaman added.



Asked about the charges of corruption against the BJP Government in Karnataka, Sitharaman said the party was waiting for the report of its in-house inquiry. “The Congress will never have a moral high ground on corruption. The party had allowed (Bofors kickbacks accused) Ottavio Quattrochchi and (Union Carbide chief) William Anderson to get away,” Sitharaman pointed out.