Cong shows support to leaders

Hitting out at the Congress for staging a show of strength while its top leaders appeared in court in the National Herald case on Saturday, the ruling BJP ridiculed that this was the first time that a political party was “fighting for corruption” in a shameful manner.

“Fight against corruption is common, but this is the first time in the country’s history that we are seeing this fight for corruption, that too in a very shameful manner,” Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said after Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi addressed the media on being granted bail in the National Herald case.

Sonia had accused the Modi government of “deliberately targeting” political opponents.

“By Congress-free India, we mean corruption-free India. Congress and corruption are made for each other,” Naqvi said in response.

Mocking the Congress leaders, Naqvi said they were sounding as “if they were not accused in a corruption case but freedom fighters”.

The minister rejected the Congress allegations of political vendetta. “National Herald is yours. Corruption is yours. The BJP has nothing to do with all this,” Naqvi said.

“The National Herald scam has reached the top of your leadership, what does the BJP or the government have to do with it,” he asked.

Naqvi said he suspected something was amiss in the National Herald case the moment Congress leaders “cried political vendetta” at a time when a legal process was on. Claiming that these efforts will boomerang on the Congress, Naqvi took a dig at Sonia’s  remarks that they were not “scared”. “The opposition party has no reason to be scared and should not scare the country as well,” the minister quipped.