Union finance minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday accused the Congress of holding democracy to ransom over the case, saying that the government has no role in the issue and will wait for the court verdi
Union finance minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday accused the Congress of holding democracy to ransom over the case, saying that the government has no role in the issue and will wait for the court verdict before taking any action.
Without naming Congress chief Sonia Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi, Mr Jaitley said that Congress leaders have got stuck in a chakravyuh they themselves created and are now obstructing Parliament for it. Rejecting suggestions that there was bitterness to the extent of enmity between the government and the Opposition, he said: “There is no enmity. There are issues on which Parliament functions as unanimous and on others it differs.” “In this case, what step has the Government of India taken for which Parliament can be obstructed ” he asked.
Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal referred to comments made by the revenue ministers of BJP-ruled Maharashtra and Haryana governments favouring ca-ncellation of lease of properties of National Herald or its holding companies and asked: “Is this not political vendetta ” He said the Congress is committed to reviving and running National Herald, a newspaper established in 1938 by Jawaharlal Nehru. He said that the Congress wants passage of the GST bill but first the government should accept its three suggestions on the proposed legislation.
“Parliament should function and we also want Parliament to function... What have we said on GST We do not want a flawed GST. We have given them three suggestions on GST. We have said you come to us on the suggestions put forth by us and implement them,” the he said. When asked about the Congress’ charge that ED director Rajan S. Katoch had been transferred out because he had given the party a clean chit, Mr Jaitley said Mr Katoch was holding additional charge of ED besides being heavy industries secretary.
