National Herald case BJP's vendetta politics: Cong

Congress today dubbed as "vendetta politics" the National Herald case against Sonia and Rahul Gandhi and said that "sponsored lies" will be defeated in courts.

"No attempts to malign the leadership of the Congress through such doctored cases will deter our resolve to continue to oppose the anti-people policies of Modi government," party's chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala told reporters, dismissing the Delhi High Court decision as a "setback" to the party.

He said that these were attempts by "incredulous agents of BJP" and re-assured the party's resolve to continue to champion peoples' voice.

"We are quite sure that truth will even finally prevail in this case," he said, alleging that Subramanian Swamy had filed a "completely mischievous and false" private complaint as part of "BJP's vendetta politics".

"We will not be deterred, we will not be cowed down, we will not back down in front of any provocation by false cases, by political vendetta and by low-level insinuation that BJP and its incredulous agents continue to do," he said.

Contrary to what many believe, Congress does not view it as a "set-back" but rather as an ongoing judicial process, he said, adding in the long course of its political journey, the party and its leadership have faced many challenges and dealt them with conviction of truth as also with a firm resolve.

Declaring that Congress has full faith in the judicial process, he said "based on the legal advice, we shall move an appropriate forum" against the judgment of the Delhi High Court.

"We also want to say that truth shall finally win and sponsored lies will be defeated both in peoples' court as also through the majesty of the process of Law and Constitution," he added.

AICC has already declared that the High Court order dismissing pleas against summons issued to Sonia and Rahul Gandhi will be challenged in the Supreme Court tomorrow. It claimed "several legal deficiencies" in the verdict.

Speaking separately, party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi, who is the senior advocate representing the Congress Vice President, said the decision had come as a surprise as there was no prior intimation that the verdict would come today and they were intimated on telephone that it was being delivered today.

Former Attorney General Soli Sorabjee said no "irreparable harm" would be caused to Sonia and Rahul if they appear before the trial court in the National Herald case.
"What irreparable harm would be caused if they appear before the trial court?" Sorabjee said.

Meanwhile, senior advocate and Congress Rajya Sabha MP K T S Tulsi said the "double standards" of the central government was evident from the fact that it was taking action against the Congress leaders but not against all those people who have been accused of having blackmoney.