From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru
Bengaluru, Sep 6: "Can anybody object to a son going to his mother?," asked senior BJP minister M Venkaiah Naidu taking strong exception to the criticism by Congress leaders to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Cabinet ministers attending the RSS conclave held in Delhi.
Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru on Sunday, the Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister and former National President of BJP said the attendance of Modi and other cabinet ministers at the RSS conclave in Delhi was like son going to his mother.
Naidu dismissed the Congress criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his cabinet colleagues taking part in the deliberations as "totally unwarranted and unjustified."
Rejecting Congress charge that "RSS is giving directions to the government and ministers are violating the oath of secrecy by reporting to it," he took a swipe at Congress party president Sonia Gandhi and said what she did from 10, Janpath, her residence, by deciding on issues of UPA government was extra-constitutional and not the action of BJP ministers.
Naidu hailed the RSS as a nationalistic organization, and said the BJP is in regular touch with it and other bodies like ABVP.
Noting that Government has already made it clear that it will go by the national agenda for governance, Naidu wondered what is extra-constitutional in interacting with the RSS.
"We meet frequently and exchange ideas. There is nothing extra-constitutional in this. The extra-constitutional authority was 10 Janpath (Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s residence) deciding the issues of the 7 RCR (Prime Minister’s residence)," Naidu said.
The BJP has frequently accused the Congress President and Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi of interfering in the work of UPA I and UPA II governments led by the then Prime Minister DrManmohan Singh.
"The Prime Minister takes a decision and the Congress Vice President asks to tear that order in a press conference.That was indeed extra constitutional," Naidu said.
He was referring to a press conference in Press Club in 2013 when Rahul Gandhi had suddenly appeared, and in a major embarrassment to the UPA government, denounced the controversial ordinance to negate the Supreme Court verdict on convicted lawmakers as "complete nonsense".
Though the RSS said it was not reviewing the government’s performance, Opposition parties including Congress, Left and other parties launched a blistering attack on the government over the issue.