Gadkari flays Sonia Gandhi's anti-Opposition tirade

NEW DELHI: The BJP on Sunday retaliated to Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s anti-Opposition tirade, saying her speech sounded like the reaction of a party under siege and resembled her party’s reflexes in the wake of the Bofors scandal. They were also aimed at, it maintained, deflecting the people’s attention from the main issues confronting them.

“Ms Gandhi’s speech sounds like the reaction of a party under siege. Instead of answering calls from the people on core issues, we see her replicating the Congress conduct when they were under attack for the Bofors scandal,” BJP President Nitin Gadkari said in a statement.

He said the Congress was getting alienated from the people and Sonia had chosen to deflect people’s attention. The BJP said the major issues facing the nation are corruption, the non-performance of UPA-II, alienation of the government from its people and distrust among Congress and its allies.

Lashing out at Sonia for calling the demand for a JPC enquiry into scams “political blackmail”, Gadkari said: “A Congress party which imposed the state of Emergency can only use such language for the legitimate demands of the Opposition.”

He said she had betrayed her failure at governance as leader of the ruling party by speaking like an Opposition leader and remained silent on how several scandals of corruption have surfaced.