Extending support to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said he will come through unscathed against charges of corruption levelled against him by the Opposition and lashed out at the Congress “for tactically targeting BJP Ministers.”
Addressing BJP’s Parliamentary Party meeting on Tuesday, the PM asked MPs and BJP leaders to go all out and “expose” Congress conspiracy to portray BJP Ministers as corrupt as Congress Ministers were during the UPA regimes. Modi asked MPs to conduct ‘Jan Sabha’, ‘Jan Sampark’ and Press conferences to bust Congress’ “crooked tactics” to target BJP Ministers.
Backing Jaitley, who is accused by the Congress and the AAP of financial irregularities in the Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) when he headed it, Modi hit out at the Congress at BJP’s Parliamentary Party meeting for levelling “wrong and manufactured” allegations to “defame” the Government.
At the meeting, no reference was made to similar charges made by BJP MP Kirti Azad, who was not present. Party president Amit Shah did not attend the meeting. Jaitley did not speak during the meet.
Talking to the media after the meeting, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu quoted Modi as having said BJP leaders like Sushma Swaraj, Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Vasundhara Raje had similarly faced such “wrong” charges from the Congress earlier.
“The PM gave the example of lK Advani. The Government at that time tried to implicate him in the Hawala case. Advani came through with flying colours and the strategy of the Congress boomeranged. Same thing is going to happen regarding allegations against Jaitley... Congress is inventing issue to defame the Government,” Naidu said quoting Modi.
Advani was on the dais as Modi gave his example to support Jaitley. The BJP veteran and a number of other leaders were investigated by the CBI during the Congress Government headed by PV Narasimha Rao.
Advani had resigned from the lok Sabha in 1996 after allegations were levelled against him in the Hawala case. The case, however, later collapsed due to lack of evidence.
Modi said there was now a no-holds-barred battle with the Congress which had lost credibility with people after the National Herald court case. According to sources, the PM said the Congress party has lost its ‘lok laj’ “and obstructing progress of the country”.
With an aim to take the battle to the Opposition, BJP MPs of the lok Sabha will be spending one night in each Assembly constituency in their seat to spread awareness about the “good work” being done by the Modi Government and the Opposition’s campaign to “defame” it. This will be done in January, Naidu said. The BJP MPs would also be visiting segments where party has not fared well in last polls.
The party collected Rs 10,000 from each MP to be contributed to the victims of Chennai rain flood. Also, the PM asked MPs to give suggestions for the Budget proposals.