Resignation spree in Congress started by Rahul: Rajnath

Even as the Congress on Monday took on the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Lok Sabha and accused it of trying to topple the government in Karnataka, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said that the party in power in the centre had no role in the political crisis in the State.

Singh dismissed the Congress’s allegation that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had played a role in destabilizing the State Government in Karnataka.

“Our party has nothing to do with what is happening in Karnataka,” said Defence Minister.

The government run by the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) in Karnataka plunged into a crisis after as many as 13 MLAs of both the partners of the ruling coalition resigned – one on July 1 and the rest on July 6. Independent MLA, H Nagesh, who was a minister in the government led by Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, also resigned on Monday.

Singh, who is also the Deputy Leader of the ruling BJP in the Lok Sabha, spoke after Congress’s leader in lower House of Parliament, Adhir Chowdhury, raised the issue during Zero Hour and accused the saffron party of “killing democracy”.

“They (the BJP leaders) say that they believe in democracy, but they are doing the opposite. You said that you have won 303 MPs in the (Lok Sabha) elections, but you are still not satisfied with it,” said Chowdhury, even as several BJP MPs tried to shout him down.

“We're committed to maintaining the dignity of parliamentary democracy,” Defence Minister said, rubbishing the Congress’ allegation against the BJP.

Singh took a dig at the Congress by noting that the opposition party’s outgoing chief Rahul Gandhi himself had started the trend of resignations in his party by quitting the post of the party president recently. Defence Minister also underlined that several other leaders of the Congress had also resigned treading on the footsteps of Gandhi.

Gandhi of late resigned from the office of the president of the Congress, accepting responsibility of the debacle of the Grand Old Party in the Lok Sabha elections held in April-May this year. He was in the House when Defence Minister referred to his resignation from the party president’s post.

The Congress MPs did not relent even after Defence Minister dismissed Chowdhury’s allegation against the BJP for the political crisis in Karnataka. They rose and waved papers with “Save Democracy” printed on them, even as Singh responded to Chowdhury.

Chowdhury announced that the Congress MPs would walk out to protest the ruling BJP’s bid to topple the government in Karnataka. Speaker Om Birla, however, adjourned the Lok Sabha before the Congress MPs could leave the House.

Earlier, as soon as the Lok Sabha assembled for the day, the MPs of the Congress rose to protest alleged ploy by the ruling BJP to topple coalition Government in the State.
Chowdhury and another Congress MP, Kodikunil Suresh, had earlier in the morning submitted a notice to Lok Sabha Speaker seeking to move an adjournment motion in the House, in the wake of the political crisis in Karnataka. As soon as the LS Speaker had taken his seat and started the proceedings of the House, the Congress MPs had started insisting on permission to move the adjournment motion. They had also raised slogans blaming the BJP for the political crisis in the State.

The Speaker, however, had not allowed Chowdhury or Suresh to move the adjournment motion but assured them that he would allow them to speak on the issue later.