Congress suffering from siege mentality: BJP

NEW DELHI - The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Sunday hit out at the Congress, describing it as a party “under siege” and accused its president Sonia Gandhi of abusing the opposition.

“The speech the Congress party has shown speaks of the mentality of the party which is under siege. Gandhi has only tried to deflect the attention of this country from the core issues of the United Progressive Alliance’s failure,” BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters.

She was responding to the Congress president’s speech at the party’s 83rd plenary in Burari in which she accused the BJP of holding the parliament hostage to “political blackmail” over the alleged irregularities in the 2G spectrum allocation.

“Gandhi has chosen to abuse the opposition. It is a pretended aggression to energise party cadres. The opposition won’t quietly watch it,” Sitharaman said, asking the Congress to answer the questions about its “non-performance”.

“She has accused the BJP of political blackmail. Let me tell you that discussions (over 2G scam) were held in 2009, post which action was delayed. The entire country saw how obstinate the Congress was. The blackmail (phrase) shows the mind set the Congress is in. The Congress is speaking in emergency language,” the BJP spokesperson said.

She said there was “a complete distrust” among Congress’ allies and within the party.