Govt incompetent, cries Cong
Says Modi govt failed to produce any concrete evidence in the investigation in the past 24 months
NEW DELHI: At a time when the BJP is trying to make Agusta-Westland chopper row an election issue in West Bengal, the Congress on Thursday upped the ante against the NDA government, claiming that the “failure” to nab the culprits in the VVIP helicopter scam during the past two years showed its “incompetence”.
Playing on the front foot, the main opposition party is preparing to launch an offensive against the BJP-led government. It has also got a handle in the form of a letter purportedly from UK national and alleged middleman in the AgustaWestland deal James Christian Michel to PM Narendra Modi.
In a well-crafted strategy, Congress MP Pramod Tiwari withdrew his demand for a discussion on AgustaWestland in the Rajya Sabha. The opposition party again insisted that the government should speed up the inquiry and punish the guilty.
The controversy resonated in West Bengal on Thursday with home minister Rajnath Singh asking the Congress to reveal the names of beneficiaries. He also questioned the Left parties’ silence on the issue.
Seeking to downplay the names of Congress leaders allegedly involved in the scam, Singhvi reminded the BJP that two decades ago the Hawala case against BJP veteran LK Advani was quashed in a Supreme Courtmonitored investigation “despite his name appearing” in the Jain diaries. “Are we living in a banana republic? Bribe has flown, so senior most person is guilty?” he said, reacting to BJP chief Amit Shah’s attack on Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
“Shah as BJP president is expected to be more responsible. It is a vote of no-confidence by the president of BJP in his own government as it has failed to come out with any concrete finding in the probe in the past 24 months,” Singhvi said.
On defence minister Manohar Parrikar’s statement about blacklisting of Agusta-Westland, Singhvi said if he said that in Parliament, he could face a breach of privilege.
Insisting the BJP was “completely misleading”, he said the ruling party was “too clever by half ” and deserved to apologise to the nation for the “irresponsible” allegations.