No democracy in Congress DNA, says BJP

New Delhi, Aug 4: The BJP on Tuesday hit back at the Congress description of the suspension of its 25 parliamentarians as "murder of democracy", saying there was "no democracy in the Congress DNA" and the opposition party talking of democracy was akin to the "devil quoting the scriptures".

"The Congress talking of democracy is like the devil quoting scriptures. There is no democracy in their DNA...the mother is the party president and son the vice president. Will they teach us democracy?" Bharatiya Janata Party leader and union minister Prakash Javadekar said.

"Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are responsible for the logjam in parliament. It does not behove them to speak about democracy as they (the Congress) is the mother of Emergency," the minister said.

He said the government had been reaching out to the Congress to break the parliament logjam but the opposition party was backing out.

The union minister said that disruption of parliament proceedings by the Congress members was "absolutely irresponsible behaviour".

Referring to the remarks of Congress leaders that they were following the tradition set by the BJP in disrupting the proceedings of parliament, Javadekar said the BJP forced adjournments in 2010 over its demand for a joint parliamentary committee.

He said that the demand for the resignations of the then UPA ministers had been made by the BJP on the basis of investigations and the Comptroller and Auditor General's reports.

"If there is corruption, the ministers have to resign," he said.

The BJP minister said there was no comparison between the BJP forcing the resignations of UPA ministers and the Congress demanding the resignations of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje over their alleged help to former IPL chief Lalit Modi and of Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan over the Vyapam scam.

Javadekar attacked the Congress over the Emergency imposed in 1975 and said that press freedom was curbed and thousands sent to jail.

"Their DNA has an Emergency mindset. At least, they should learn parliamentary democracy. The ruling party is reaching out, they are backing out," Javadekar said.

Sonia Gandhi had on Tuesday described Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan's decision to suspend 25 of her party MPs as "murder of democracy".

The Speaker had on Monday suspended 25 Congress parliamentarians for five days for "willfully obstructing the business of the house" and not adhering to her repeated warnings to observe rules in the house.

Javadekar said some parties, that on Tuesday joined the Congress protest against the Speaker's decision, had faced suspension of their members in 1989 during the Rajiv Gandhi government when 63 members were suspended by the presiding officer.

He said Congress members from the then united Andhra Pradesh were suspended during the UPA rule on the issue of creation of a separate state of Telangana.

Javadekar alleged that the Congress was disrupting parliament proceedings due to its "jealousy" towards the Narendra Modi government.

"They have not digested their defeat (in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections). The Modi government is working continuously. They (Congress) are not able to digest the government's good work," Javadekar said.

IANS