PNB fraud, Rafale set to be Cong poll planks
CWC MEET UPA deported 82K Bangladeshis, NDA 1.8K, party says on NRC row
NEW DELHI: The Congress’s highest decision-making body on Saturday decided to use the controversial Rafale fighter jet deal and suspected bank frauds as ammunition to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the upcoming state elections and the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
The Congress Working Committee (CWC) also decided to corner the BJP on the final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam that excluded four million residents of the state; the party’s opposition to the report, aimed at identifying and deporting foreigners, has triggered BJP claims that the Congress was soft on illegal, mainly Bangladeshi, immigrants.
The Congress retorted on Saturday by claiming that 82,728 Bangladeshis were deported from 2005 to 2013 when it was in power, compared to just 1,822 in the past four years of the Bjp-led NDA government.
At a meeting chaired by Congress president Rahul Gandhi, the CWC decided to weave the party’s campaign around alleged wrongdoing in the Rafale deal and bank frauds, notably a ₹14,000 scam at staterun Punjab National Bank suspected to have been carried out by fugitive diamond traders Mehul Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi.
The BJP promptly hit back. “Congress has been acting as a loan giving agent over the years and the BJP government has had to act as a loan recovery agent. Modi government has zero tolerance for corruption,” BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said. He also referred to the CWC as a “corruption wali committee,” taking a jibe at the Congress.
The Congress’s campaign strategy follows an assessment that the corruption issue is going to hurt the BJP’S electoral prospects not only in four states — Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram — where assembly polls will be held in November-december, but also the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
In 2014, the Congress too was undone by corruption scandals.
Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said the party will launch a ‘Jan Andolan (people’s movement)’ on the Rafale deal and bank scams and details of the campaign will be chalked out in consultation with state and central leaders.
Rahul Gandhi tweeted, “One of the highlights of today’s CWC meeting was Mr (A K) Antony’s brilliant description of the Rafale robbery: 130,000 crore stolen from the people of India and given to a friend who was 45,000 crore in debt.”
In 2016, India decided to purchase 36 Rafale fighter jets in a fly-away condition from Dassault Aviation of France, scrapping an earlier agreement for 126 of the planes; state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) was to make some of the aircraft in India through a transfer of technology clause.