No democracy in Congress' DNA: Government on Sonia Gandhi's 'murder of democracy' remark

NEW DELHI: Government today hit back at Congress after Sonia Gandhi called the suspension of 25 party MPs from the Lok Sabha "murder of democracy", saying there was no democracy in the DNA of the Opposition party which is ruled by "maa-beta" (mother-son).

Union minister Prakash Javadekar also blamed the Congress chief and party's vice-president Rahul Gandhi for the disruption of monsoon session of Parliament and alleged that the Opposition party was driven by "ineptitude" and its "jealousy" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "successes".

He told reporters that Modi will speak in Parliament if the Opposition allows its work and cited several instances of the government making efforts to break the impasse to claim that the treasury benches were "reaching out" but Congress was "backing out".

"Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are squarely responsible for the logjam. The Speaker's decision to suspend 25 members is right," he said as he cited the use of marshals in the House to remove eight Samajwadi Party members, who were protesting against the Women Reservation Bill, and other instances during the Congress governments to hit out at the party.

"I am surprised that Congress is talking about democracy. The whole party is undemocratic. To see it use the language of democracy is like satan reading the Bible. There is no democracy in its DNA. Even today mother is the party president and son is its vice-president," Javadekar said.

The Congress should believe in parliamentary democracy, he said and asked the Opposition party to shun its "bravado" and start debates in Parliament.