New Delhi, Aug 13 (NDTV): Sonia Gandhi, the president of the Congress, today told the party's law-makers that the ruling BJP "has nothing new to offer." In a speech to them at Parliament this morning, Mrs Gandhi said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's new government is following through on the policies that were drafted or introduced by the Congress-led government that was decimated in the May election.
"They are welcome to steal our ideas and borrow our ideas, and let them attack us because imitation is the best acknowledgement," Mrs Gandhi, 67, said.
Under the leadership of her son, Rahul, the Congress won just 44 seats in the national election - the party's poorest performance ever. It has laid claim, unsuccessfully so far, to get the post of Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.
The government has countered that with less than a tenth of the Lok Sabha's seats, the party is not entitled to the post. Mrs Gandhi had indicated a few weeks ago that despite the claims of some Congressmen, the decision would not be challenged in court.
Mrs Gandhi urged Congress law-makers to remember that while they are a small presence in the Lok Sabha, they are strong in the Rajya Sabha with 68 MPs in the 245-member house. The Congress has used its numbers in the Upper House, where the BJP needs its support, to block the government's attempts to introduce a key reform to increase foreign participation in the insurance sector from 26 per cent to 49 per cent.
She repeated today the allegations that Rahul Gandhi controversially made on Friday - that the BJP is engineering communal violence for political benefits, especially in states like Uttar Pradesh where important by-elections are due soon.
Referring to "signals of intolerance" by the BJP and its affiliates, she said that the Congress must check deliberate attempts to polarise voters.
Last week, Mr Gandhi, 44, abandoned a long tradition of low-level activity in Parliament to join other parliamentarians from the Congress as they disrupted proceedings in the Lok Sabha by rushing to the Well of the house, an area near the Speaker's chair that is off-limits to MPs. Mr Gandhi wanted an urgent discussion to be held on communal violence- a demand his party has made repeatedly since then.
Attacking the PM, Mr Gandhi had said, "There is a mood in Parliament that only one man's voice counts for anything in this country."