With the Congress-led Opposition continuing to stall Parliament, an aggressive BJP leadership on Wednesday firmly backed external affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and its two State Chief Ministers who are under the Opposition’s attack over lalit Modi row and Vyapam scam, and asked party MPs to expose the Opposition “which is not able to digest the popularity” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The message was conveyed in the party’s Parliamentary Party meeting which was attended by the PM, BJP president Amit Shah, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley , Swaraj and other senior Cabinet ministers and leaders.
Modi asked the MPs to be “proud” of the Centre’s work with the BJP chief telling them that all the States ruled by the party were doing “a very good work with honesty. We have done no wrong.”
Shah told the MPs that they should be giving strong reply to the Opposition’s criticism and sought to link latter’s “obstructive actions” in Parliament to “their not being able to digest the growing popularity of the Prime Minister”.
The BJP president said the Government at the Centre has done “an excellent job nationally and internationally”.
“We will expose those we are trying to disrupt our journey on the path to progress over fabricated issues. We will take them in Parliament and on streets... We will not let the Congress succeed. Our State Governments, our Chief Ministers are doing a very good work and doing it with honesty,” Shah was quoted as saying by Minster of state for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi after the meeting.
The BJP president said MPs should not be influenced by “evil propaganda of the Congress”. Jailtely also spoke in similar vein.
The over 45-minute meeting witnessed Swaraj reasoning out that she offered no help to the former IPl Commissioner, Naqvi said.
“I offered neither any financial benefit to him nor did I help him flee India. I never told the British Government to give him travel documents. All I did was to tell them that their decision (on lalit Modi’s request) will not affect their ties with India,” Naqvi said quoting her.
“The Congress is trying to make a mountain out of a molehill. Here there is not even a molehill,” she said, adding she had rejected pressure from some senior Congress leaders to give diplomatic passport to Coal scam accused Santosh Bagrodia. Swaraj had earlier tweeted about it.
In a spirited address , Swaraj said lalit Modi’s wife, suffering from cancer, needed her husband’s consent before undergoing operation.
Also, she strongly defended the Madhya Pradesh Government over Vyapam scam, Naqvi said.
The meeting also touched on the issue raised by the BJP veteran and former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Shanta Kumar in a letter written to the party President. Party leaders in the meeting maintained that such comments should not have been made as they would only “help the Congress party”.