For the third consecutive day on Wednesday, the Congress disrupted Parliament over the National Herald controversy, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s greetings to Congress president Sonia Gandhi on her 69th birthday making no impact.
In the evening, top Congress leaders — Ahmed Patel, P. Chidambaram, Abhishekh Manu Singhvi and Kapil Sibal — met at 10 Janpath to discuss the party’s strategy in Parliament in the wake of the Delhi High Court’s ruling that refused to set aside the summons issued to its leaders in the National Herald case. Ms. Gandhi and party vice-president Rahul Gandhi are facing the charge of financial “misappropriations”.
So far, the Congress has not found much support, except from the Trinamool Congress. However, NCP leaders Sharad Pawar, Praful Patel and Supriya Sule, and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar called on Ms. Gandhi to wish her on her birthday.
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Wednesday’s meeting comes in the wake of the confabulations senior leaders have been holding over the last two days. While the party will follow the case legally, it will take up the issue head on politically. Responding to the allegation of senior BJP leader and Union Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu — that the Congress was using Parliament to “threaten” the judiciary — Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said in the Lok Sabha that the case was politically motivated, a tactic deployed by the BJP to “intimidate the Opposition”. Meanwhile, Mr. Rahul Gandhi reiterated his party’s stand, saying the case was “100 percent political vendetta coming out of the Prime Minister’s Office”.
Senior BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi responded to Mr. Gandhi’s remark, saying the Congress leadership had “Modi phobia” since “anything happening on the earth is being linked” to the Prime Minister.