The Hindu : National : Sonia's charge

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Thursday, Jul 08, 2004

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National

Sonia's charge

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JULY 7. The Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, criticised today the recent conduct of the Bharatiya Janata Party and National Democratic Alliance in Parliament charging that their leaders were "busy trying to subvert the overwhelming mandate of our people" and "behaving in a most irresponsible way."

"The desperation of our political opponents is not surprising, their frustration not unexpected. Blinded by arrogance of power, isolated from the people of our country, they did not expect to lose. They lost. More than that, they lost decisively. They and their cheerleaders are busy trying to subvert the overwhelming mandate of our people," Ms. Gandhi said addressing the first general body meeting of the Congress Party in Parliament in the current Budget session that began on Monday.

Ms. Gandhi compared this with the "sober and dignified" conduct of the Congress while it was in the Opposition during the last six years, stating that the party was constructive and its members always conscious of duties and responsibilities to the people.

"But the BJP/NDA is totally different. Left with no substantive issues whatsoever with which to attack us they are behaving in a most irresponsible way.

The entire country expects Parliament to function smoothly and debates to take place in a proper manner," she said at the meeting held in the backdrop of the disruption of the opening day of the session with the Opposition protesting against the presence of `tainted' Ministers in the Manmohan Singh Government.

On Tuesday, the Opposition boycotted the presentation of the Railway Budget and subsequent business.

Ms. Sonia said that the party organisation would be geared to consolidate on the Lok Sabha polls success and work better in States where the performance was "disappointing."

She said that while elections to the Maharasthra Assembly were just 70 days away, the party had to prepare for Assembly polls in Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana, Bihar and Jharkhand.

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