Congress on Friday targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP over range of issues including his public address at the holy shrine Kedarnath in Uttarakhand. While party vice president Rahul Gandhi fired a fresh salvo at them over the controversy surrounding BJP chief’s Amit Shah’s son’s company, former Union Minister RPN Singh charged Modi of misleading the people at Kedarnath to seek political capital on the eve of Assembly polls in Himachal Pradesh.
“Mitron (friends), will not speak about ‘Shah-zada’, nor will let anyone speak,” Rahul tweeted referring to an interim injunction granted by an Ahmedabad court on a criminal defamation plea filed against a news portal by Jay Shah, son of Amit Shah.
Jay Shah had recently filed a criminal defamation case against the online portal after it published an article claiming the turnover of a company run by him saw a huge rise after the BJP came to power at the Centre in 2014. An Ahmedabad court had on Monday restrained the portal from publishing or broadcasting reports based on the article published by it regarding Jay Shah’s firm. Both the Congress and its vice president Rahul Gandhi have repeatedly questioned Modi’s “silence” on the issue.
AICC spokesperson RPN Singh, reacting to Modi’s claims that the Congress Government in Uttarakhand had not allowed him as Gujarat Chief Minister to rebuild the hill shrine of Kedarnath after flash floods devastated it in 2013, said, ‘it is unfortunate that arrogance marked his address at Kedarnath. Singh alleged that PM has misled the people of the State through his statements.
“When the tragedy in Uttarakhand happened, the then UPA Government at the Centre had set up a committee for carrying out rehabilitation work. The UPA Govenrment approved Rs 8000 crore for disaster relief of which Rs 2200 crore were released at that time and work started,” Singh at AICC Press briefing.