BJP hits back at Sonia: 'It's our right to expose govt'

Attacking Congress president Sonia Gandhi for her remark that it had become "fashionable" to criticise the government, Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday said it was their "democratic" right to expose the deficiencies and shortcomings of the government.

"If your government does not perform, if prices are not contained, if there is rampant corruption, public money is looted with impunity, if there is declining industrial growth and overall sense of despair, are we not entitled to expose that...Is it fashionable," BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters outside Parliament.

He said this when his attention was drawn to the Congress chief's remarks.

Prasad alleged that public welfare had been the biggest casualty during the tenure of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government.

"It is the democratic right of the principle opposition to expose the deficiencies and shortcomings of a government... and we will continue to expose it and I am sorry it is not fashion but obligation," he said.

Addressing a meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party in New Delhi, Gandhi had said, "It seems to have become almost fashionable these days to criticise the government. We must speak forcefully and with confidence on what we have achieved and there is much we have to show despite difficult economic times."

Gandhi's remarks on unity and discipline in the party assumes significance as they have come ahead of a reshuffle of the AICC and several states units to refurbish them ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha poll battle.

Commenting on the poll results in the five states including Uttar Pradesh, Gandhi conceded there is "much work to be done" in UP and several other states and that Congress did not perform as well as expected.

"In Uttar Pradesh, even though we did not perform as well as we had hoped to, we increased our vote share quite considerably and were seen as a serious player for the first time in 22 years. Of course there is much work to be done there as in other states," she said.

She described as "very disappointing" the results in Punjab and Goa.

The CPP meeting has come a few days after a high-power committee of the party led A K Antony that reviewed the party's performance in the five states, submitted its report to Gandhi.

Gandhi also asked partymen to project the works of the party led government at the Centre.

The Congress president also chose the occasion to flag urgency over the food security and land acquitisiton bill, which are yet to be brought before Parliament in the backdrop of reservations of allies like Nationalist Congress Party and Trinamool Congress.

"On our part, we must do all we can to ensure that the legislative process is not unduly delayed. Whatever motives may guide the Opposition, we have but one singular duty and that is to the people who have elected us...," Gandhi said.

Seeking to dismiss the critics of NCTC, she said that Congress and the government were "fully committed" to strengthening federalism.

"But there are Centre-state issues of major national importance-such as fighting terrorism or dealing with Left-wing extremism-where the Centre cannot shirk its responsibility," she said.

With Narendra Modi's claims of development apparently weighing on  her mind, Gandhi told partymen to "expose the hollow claims of opposition-rule state governments".

"Mis-governance and corruption have been widespread in some of these states as revealed by CAG and Lokayukta reports," she said at a time when there has been indications that the Congress would hit Modi with the corruption stick this time unlike in the past when it had raked up "communal" politics".