Incident a direct fallout of unemployment, inflation: Rahul on Parliament security breach

NEW DELHI: Tying the BJP-led Centre to the Parliament security breach incident, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday claimed that the incident was the fallout of 'unemployment' and 'inflation'.

Speaking to reporters on Saturday, the Congress Lok Sabha MP said, "Why did this (security breach) happen? The main issue in the country is unemployment. Due to the policies of PM Modi, the youth of the country are not getting jobs. I believe that this incident was a direct fallout of unemployment and inflation."

Meanwhile, senior Congress leader KC Venugopal on Saturday said it wasn't the opposition members but Delhi Police that politicised the incident after labelling it as a terror attack.

Addressing a media briefing at the AICC headquarters in the national capital on Saturday, the Congress leader said Delhi Police, which reports to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, called the security breach on December 13, Wednesday, a terror attack.

"Delhi Police called it (parliament security breach) a terror attack. It comes under the Union Home Minister, doesn't it? We (Opposition members) didn't politicise the incident, we didn't call it a terror attack. We only put forward our concerns over the glaring lapse in security from the government side," Venugopal said at the media briefing on Saturday.

Questioning the suspension of 13 Congress MPs from the Parliament on grounds of misconduct, the Congress national general secretary said, "You (Centre) people told us that this (new Parliament) building would be the safest place in the world. And, what happened the other day was because of lax security. Members (in the Opposition) are being penalised for raising their voices against the government. For what reasons were 14 (Opposition) MPs suspended?"

Along with 13 Congress members, Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien was also suspended by House Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar for the remainder of the ongoing Winter Session.

The Special Cell of Delhi Police earlier apprised the Patiala House Court that mastermind Lalit Jha disclosed that all the accused in the security breach incident met many times and hatched the conspiracy. Delhi Police, while producing Jha before the court, said Lalit disclosed that the accused persons, including himself, wanted to create anarchy in the country so that they could compel the government into meeting their demands.

The Patiala House Court on Thursday granted seven days custodial remand of all four accused persons --Neelam, Amol, Sagar Sharma and Manoranjan -- arrested in connection with the security breach.