Sonia Gandhi braces for BJP fight; Cong to 'hit the streets'

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday asked party MPs to take the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) head on and said it was a "matter of shame and regret" that the BJP was not allowing Parliament to function. "Creating confusion in the minds of people has become bread and butter of the BJP," a Congress leader quoted Gandhi as telling the Congress parliamentary meeting. She also said that disruption has become a day-to-day affair of the BJP, the Congress source said. "When serious issues are affecting the country, it is a  matter of shame and regret that Parliament is not allowed to function by the BJP which is absolutely irresponsible," Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi said, quoting Gandhi.

He was speaking to reporters after the Congress meeting. She also said that not letting Parliament function was the handiwork of one opposition party, particularly the BJP, that had scant respect for democratic values. Quoting Gandhi, Dwivedi said: "I have already said that prime minister and the government are ready to debate and discuss the CAG report. The BJP is mocking the people of this country." The BJP has been disrupting both houses of parliament for the last six days over its insistence that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should resign after the official auditor pointed out irregularities in coal block allocations.

Cong to hit streets against BJP

Under unrelenting attack from the BJP over coal blocks allocation, the Congress on Tuesday announced it will "hit the streets" to expose the double-speak of the opposition over sanctity of constitutional institutions. After a meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party here under the chairmanship of Sonia Gandhi, spokesperson Manish Tewari told reporters in New Delhi that lakhs of party workers would "hit the streets" to expose the BJP "shedding crocodile tears" over the sanctity of constitutional bodies.

Tewari's remarks come in the wake of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders targeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over his attacks on the Comptroller and Auditor General's report on coal blocks allocation in a statement made in parliament Monday. "The BJP is in the habit of shedding crocodile tears about the sanctity of constitutional institutions. Is parliament not a constitutional institution and their stalling it -- will it not undermine democracy?" Tewari asked the opposition party. "Under the directions of party chief Sonia Gandhi, lakhs of Congress workers will hit the streets to expose the BJP," he said.