BJP general secretary Rajiv Pratap Rudy on Wednesday claimed that former Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director AP Mukherjee has revealed in his book that ex-Prime Minister late Rajiv Gandhi desired that payoffs generated by defence deals be used as for funding political parties.
“In his recently released book, Mukherjee has revealed that Gandhi desired that commissions paid as a routine by most defence dealers to middle men should be done away with. Instead, the amount such generated should be used for funding expenses of political parties,” Rudy told media here.
Dubbing the revelations as scandalous, he said the disclosure raised questions that whether the same philosophy of legitimising corruption has been followed by the Congress and that whether the recent scams were its result.
Rudy demanded reply from senior Congress leadership including Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her deputy Rahul Gandhi over the matter.
Referring to a recent statement by the Prime Minister's Office asking the CBI to tread cautiously on policy matters, he sought to know whether it was inappropriate for the investigating agency to look into policies that had been used to make certain allocations.
Mentioning that the 15th lok Sabha’s last session would begin on December 5, the former Union Minister said the Opposition BJP would raise all the issues during the short session. He said that the UPA was on its deathbed.
Reiterating that the BJP believed that the Prime Minister should present himself for examination before the CBI in connection with the coal block allocation scam, Rudy said Singh should quit his post as prime minister prior to appearing before the CBI.
He said the BJP's election campaign in Madhya Pradesh kicked off today. He claimed that the party would return to power for the third time in the state.
Comparing Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Rudy said Madhya Pradesh has prospered under Chouhan's tenure with rise in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), agricultural growth and other parameters. On the other hand, the country has witnessed a downturn in GDP and industrial growth under Singh's rule.