Cong rally a ruse to divert focus from chopper scam: Naidu

Mumbai, May 6: Terming the 'Save Democracy' rally held by the Congress outside the Parliament as "ridiculous", Union minister Venkaiah Naidu today said the opposition party is resorting to such tactics only to divert public attention from the AugustaWestland chopper case.

"Today Congress is demonstrating outside the Parliament and levelling allegations against us.

This is ridiculous and they have no moral right to say this (allegation against the NDA Government)," Naidu told reporters on the sidelines of an event here.

The rally saw Rahul Gandhi and Manmohan Singh attacking the Modi dispensation over pulling down of Congress governments in Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

"During the Congress regime, they had dismissed almost 100 state governments. President's rule was imposed in two states but the governments (in Uttarkhand and Arunachal Pradesh) were not dismissed as was done by the Congress government in non-Congress states," the Minister said.

He also said it was Congress that clamped the emergency on the country in 1975 and imposed press censorship besides sending opposition leaders to jail. "They misused the government machinery for their benefit.

So their demonstration outside the Parliament is ridiculous and they have no moral right to say this," he said. Naidu further said the levelling allegations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi is nothing but a move by the Opposition to "defame" him.

"They tried to defame Modi even when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat. Now with these demonstrations, they want to divert the attention from the serious AgustaWestland scam. But our government is committed to take it to conclusion," Naidu said.

PTI