Government avoiding Parliament due to Gujarat polls: Congress  

The Congress on Tuesday alleged the government is deliberately delaying the winter session of Parliament to avoid questions from the opposition benches which can hamper its prospects in the Gujarat assembly polls.

“They do not want discussion in Parliament so they are giving different excuses for delaying the winter session.

“If they convene Parliament session and hold discussion, then they will be exposed.

“So they are trying to convene the session after the Gujarat assembly polls,” Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress leader in Parliament told reporters in New Delhi at a joint press conference attended by party’s floor leaders in Parliament.

He said whatever was happening under the Narendra Modi government was an “attack on democracy”.

“Even Ministers of this government and Speaker do not know when the session will be convened. Only one person knows about it -- who is Brahma. You cannot be whimsical in running of a democracy,” he said.

Earlier, speaking to reporters, leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad slammed the government for allegedly shying away from facing Parliament.

He said the government is deliberately delaying the session to “hide its corruption and failures on the employment and economic fronts.”

The Congress leaders hit out at the government a day after their President Sonia Gandhi accused Modi of delaying the winter session on “flimsy grounds”.

Gandhi on Monday said the government in its “arrogance” has “cast a dark shadow on the country's parliamentary democracy.”

Asserting that the government wanted to avoid questions and answers ahead of the Gujarat polls, she warned the NDA regime that it cannot escape constitutional accountability by “locking the temple of democracy”.