The Hindu : New Delhi News : Desperate antics of bad losers, says Congress

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Friday, Jul 25, 2008
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Desperate antics of bad losers, says Congress

Gargi Parsai

New formation of UNPA-Left a “misguided missile”

NEW DELHI: The Congress has said the “entire sordid episode” of Bharatiya Janata Party MPs bringing currency notes into the Lok Sabha alleging that they were being bribed to vote for the Government in the trust vote was “fake and stage-managed” with the sole intention of diverting attention.

“It was nothing more than desperate antics of bad losers.”

The Congress described the new formation of the United National Progressive Alliance and the Left as a “misguided missile,” which was incapable of taking any message anywhere. “Nothing can be more laughable than this motley group of 10 parties talking of secularism when they’ve just voted with the BJP,” Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan said here.

Hitting out at the BJP, she said the party stood “exposed in its true colours.” “By bringing currency notes secretly into the House, the party has forever polluted the temple of democracy and indulged in the worst form of political terrorism. It was calculated to destroy faith in Parliament.”

Ms. Natarajan said the BJP had never been graceful in defeat. Tuesday’s episode was the “worst manifestation of the dirty tricks of the BJP when confronted with defeat.”

On the charge of the UPA mobilising support “by horse-trading and bribery and inducements,” Ms. Natarajan said it was “absolutely false, baseless with not a shred of evidence. It was the outpouring of disgruntled losers.”

She denied that the UPA engineered defections to win the vote of confidence. “Those who [cross-] voted in favour of the government believed in the India-U.S. nuclear agreement.”

Ms. Natarajan also denied the allegation that the Congress president’s political secretary Ahmed Patel was involved in the bribery charge made by the BJP members in the Lok Sabha. “It is a crude and clumsy attempt to drag the Congress. I completely deny it.”

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