BJP: Cong raking up stale issue
The BJP on Friday hit back at the Congress for trying to rake up an “old and stale” issue of the Lalit Modi episode rather than answering inconvenient questions involving Young Indian, a company in which Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice- president Rahul Gandhi are “majority” stakeholders. The ruling party termed the Opposition party raking up the Lalit Modi issue as “diversionary” tactics.
Attacking the Congress for latching onto an “old and stale” issue which senior BJP leaders Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj had “exposed” in Parliament in the Monsoon Session, Union minister Prakash Javadekar said: “When Jaitley and Swaraj gave their replies, they had no answers. The Congress was completely exposed. It is an old and stale issue. The Congress is just using a diversionary tactic and running away from inconvenient questions ( about Young Indian).” He said it was the then UPA government that did not do enough to bring the formal IPL boss to book.
Alleging that Young Indian took loan from a firm involved in black money deals and questioning the manner of its acquisition of Associated Journals, which owns expensive real estate in many cities, Mr Javadekar took potshots at the Congress, saying it should explain such “magical formula” so that youths could benefit from it.
He also raked up controversial land deal involving Mrs Gandhi’s son- inlaw Robert Vadra.
“He buys land for ` 8 crore and the seller does not even encash the cheque. He then sells the same land to the same seller for ` 58 crore in a few months. The Congress gives a loan of ` 90 crore to Associated Journals and Young Indian is issued shares worth ` 90 crore. It should explain these magical formulae so that our youngsters could benefit,” the senior BJP leader said.
Asked what the BJP governments in Haryana and Centre were doing if the party found the transactions involving Mr Vadra and Young Indian questionable, he said the “governments must be doing something”.
The Congress has dismissed the BJP’s charge saying it was levelling baseless allegations as it sensed imminent defeat in the Bihar Assembly elections.