Blackmail is Bread and Butter of BJP, Says Sonia


New Delhi: Lashing out at the Bharatiya Janata Party for stalling parliament, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday asked her party MPs to take it head-on and said blackmail has become the BJP's "bread and butter".

With the government under attack over coal block allocations, Gandhi said at a meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party here that it was a "matter of shame and regret" that the BJP was not allowing parliament to function.

"Creating confusion in the minds of people and blackmail has become the bread and butter of the BJP, which is a matter of concern even for some of its allies," a Congress insider quoted Gandhi as telling the Congress Parliamentary Party meeting.

She said that disruption has become a day-to-day affair of the BJP, the Congress source told IANS. She also asked MPs to take the BJP head-on by hitting the streets to expose its double-speak.

"When serious issues are affecting the country, it is a matter of shame and regret that parliament is not allowed to function by the BJP, which is absolutely irresponsible," Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi added, quoting Gandhi.

He was speaking to reporters after the meeting.

Gandhi also said that not letting parliament function was the handiwork of one opposition party, particularly the BJP, that had scant respect for democratic values.

The BJP has been disrupting both houses of parliament for the last six days over its insistence that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should resign after the official auditor pointed out irregularities in coal block allocations.

Source: IANS