Jaitley denies vendetta by government

Attacking the Congress over disruption of Parliament on the issue, he asked party leaders including Sonia and Rahul Gandhi to face the courts saying India is not a banana republic in which Parliament or media can decide the guilt or innocence in such matters.

“No political vendetta. A private complaint was lodged. 

Government had nothing to do with it. The High Court has dismissed their case and asked them to go and face trial. Nobody in this country has immunity from law,” he said.

Jaitley talking to reporters after both the Houses were disrupted by Congress over the order in the Herald case, said the substance of the court proceedings is that a political party — Congress — collects funds for political purpose, gets a tax exemption but by a series of transactions those funds have been transferred to a trust and then to a company, which is closely held.

“The government has done nothing and if the government were at some stage to find that an investigative agency was to find some prima facie, they could do so. They have not reached that stage,” Jaitley said, adding, Earlier, senior BJP leader and union minister M Venkaiah Naidu said it was “totally unethical, unfair and undemocratic on the part of the Congress party to obstruct Parliament.”