Lawmakers’ ordinance Congress ploy to save own leaders: BJP

“The Ordinance brought in by Congress in haste was to help its own leaders and not just its allies like Lalu Prasad. “The ordinance was brought in to save senior Congress leader Rasheed Masood,Lalu Prasad and JD(U) MP Jagdish Sharma,as also people who could possibly get convicted for various scams that occurred during the UPA regime,” BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said.

Hussain said had it not been for BJP’s opposition to the proposed legislation in Parliament and then to the said ordinance,convicted lawmakers would continue to sit in the legislative bodies.

He said that till even the last day of the Monsoon Session of Parliament,Congress was “pushing” the new legislation to allow convicted leaders to continue. “Congress had been demanding an extension of the Monsoon Session. They wanted to get the Bill on corrupt legislators passed in the House,but all their attempts were thwarted by BJP,” Hussain said.

Hussain said that people of the country were awaiting conviction of more ruling party leaders in the Coalgate,2G,CWG,Chopper and Railway scams. Attacking Congress for creating confusion over the ordinance,he said,”Rahulji (Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi) gives a statement against the ordinance and Soniaji (Congress President Sonia Gandhi) says she stands by Manmohan Singh,but the entire Congress is behind Rahulji. It is a puzzle… We are waiting to see who is behind whom.”

Hussain said Rahul was in the know for all aspects related to the ordinance as the matter was discussed at various platforms,like the Congress Core Committee and the UPA Core Committee,before being enacted.

He said Supreme Court verdicts against corrupt MPs had helped infuse confidence in people about the judiciary and would go a long way towards cleansing politics.

Reacting to Lalu’s conviction,he said,”We are not happy over Lalu’s conviction… Lalu is a fellow Lok Sabha member,we feel sad over his conviction. We welcome the decision but we wish he (Lalu) had not got involved in the fodder scam.

“The verdict has been given by court. The fight against corruption (in Bihar) was spearheaded by BJP. We started the fight against Lalu. This was started by Sushil Kumar Modi,who raised the issue against him as leader of opposition in Bihar Assembly. The credit goes to BJP,”he said.

Speaking on any future alliances in Bihar,where the ruling JD(U) used to be a former ally,Hussain said,”Everyone is tempted to go in for an alliance with BJP; but we will not align with any party which is in the government or with anybody who was earlier in the government.”

Hussain also denied there was any proposal for an alliance with Jaganmohan Reddy’s YSR Congress in Andhra Pradesh,although he did acknowledge the latter’s praise of Gujarat Chief Minister and BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.