Congress and BJP trade blows over Mallya issue

Afresh war of words broke out between the BJP and Congress over Vijay Mallya yesterday with Congress president Rahul Gandhi seeking Finance Minister Arun Jaitleys resignation over “free passage” given to the fugitive businessman and the BJP hitting out by alleging that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government gave “sweet deals” to Mallya. The BJP also claimed that the Gandhi family “partially owned the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines through proxy”.

The ruling party rejected the demand for Jailtley’s resignation and instead sought to turn the tables on the Congress by asking Rahul Gandhi to quit in view of his involvement in National Herald case.

The day saw two press conferences each by the Congress and BJP with Gandhi coming to party’s central office to attack Jaitley.

It came a day after Mallya said he had met Jaitley and the Union minister rubbished the claim of any formal meeting.

Rahul accused Jaitely of “colluding” with Mallya who is facing charges of fraud and money laundering amounting to around Rs90bn. He asked why Jaitley did not inform the investigating agencies about Mallya’s plans to leave India.

“There is a clear-cut collusion. He (Jaitley) should have confessed (about the meeting) and he should resign. The finance minister talks to an absconder (Mallya) and the absconder tells the finance minister that I am going to London. The finance minister neither told the Central Bureau of Investigation nor the enforcement directorate or the police, why?

“He was given a free passage to leave the country by the finance minister. There was a ‘ lookout’ notice against Mallya which was diluted to an ‘inform’ notice. Who changed it? This can be done only by one who controls the CBI,” he alleged.

Rahul also demanded to know if the decision was taken by Jaitley himself or the “order came from the top”.

“The finance minister has colluded with a criminal running away from the country. He was told by the criminal that he is going to run away but the fi- nance minister did nothing. The government is lying on Rafale, they are lying on Mallya”.

At the media conference, Congress MP P L Punia claimed to give an eyewitness account of the meeting between Jaitley and Mallya in the central hall of Parliament before the businessman fled the country on March 2, 2016.

Punia claimed the meeting between Jaitley and Mallya lasted 15-20 minutes and asked if Mallya had taken permission from Jaitley about his planned flight abroad.

Hitting out at the Congress, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra all eged that there were documents that show how Reserve Bank of I ndia and UPA under Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh had given sweet deals to K i ngfisher Airlines.

“And it appears through these chain of documents that Kingfisher Airlines was owned not by Mallya but by the Gandhi family through proxy,” he alleged showing the letters written by RBI to the State Bank of India requesting for the restructuring of the loans of Kingfisher Airline The accuracy of the documents could not be ascertained. There was no immediate response from Rahul Gandhi’s office.

Patra also alleged that the party has enough evidence which shows that Rahul Gandhi was “using black money” and the Gandhi family was helping Mallya with sweet deals.

He claimed that Rahul Gandhi travelled free in Kingfisher Airlines, which was once owned by Mallya.