Stung by the BJP’s offensive on his family in Parliament, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he lacked guts and tamely surrendered when faced with first major challenge from the Opposition on the land Bill. Rahul also dared the PM to bring back former IPl commissioner lalit Modi to India, who he described as the “biggest link” between the political system and black money.
“We had lost the elections and I felt he had guts. But now I am feeling that this man does not have any guts. We were stuck over the land Bill issue. I thought it would be a tough fight. We have 40 (MPs), and the other side, more than 200 (MPs). But when the battle was waged and pressure increased, Modiji turned around and started running. It’s a reality, he fled,” Rahul said, while leading a protest of Congress MPs on the Parliament premises against the NDA Government and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj for failing to give a proper reply in the lalit Modi case.
Rahul added he would “defend” the country from the RSS and Narendra Modi, reminding journalists that three TV channels had been issued notices by the Government recently.
Keeping up the pressure on the issue of Sushma Swaraj’s help to lait Modi to obtain British travel documents, the Congress vice-president said she had given “long statements” in the lok Sabha but had not answered why she had helped the fugitive wanted in India by enforcement agencies.
Both Rahul Gandhi and former Union Minister P Chidambaram also demanded that the External Affairs Minister tendered an unqualified apology for raking up allegations against Rajiv Gandhi citing a Delhi High Court judgement. The party has also written to lok Sabha Speaker demanding expunging of allegations by Sushma Swaraj against Rajiv Gandhi.
Dismissing Swaraj charges, Rahul said that his father’s name has been cleared by the judicial system in the Bofors case but the matter has been going on for 30 years with the Opposition kept attacking him. He said such charges made no difference to him as the judicial system in the country gave a statement that this was a campaign against Rajiv Gandhi and that there was nothing in this.
Congress leader in the lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge wrote to Speaker Sumitra Mahajan seeking expunction of the allegations made by Swaraj against the late Prime Minister
Chidambaram noted that there were basically three sets of questions, one relating to the External Affairs Minister’s intervention, second the passport case of lalit Modi and third the letters he had written as Finance Minister to his British counterpart. He insisted that Swaraj and Jaitley had not answered them.
“Swaraj and Jaitley put up a last-ditch effort. They did everything except to answer crucial questions that arose out of Swaraj’s intervention on behalf of lalit Modi,” Chidambaram said at a Congress briefing at AICC headquarters.
“I am afraid that the two Ministers have failed the Government and the people. Instead of a debate, we got a diatribe. Instead of answers, we got sermons. Instead of facts, we got fudge. If the Ministers think that these questions will go away, I am afraid they will not,” Chidambaram said wondering why Government was not releasing letters written by him as Finance Minister to his British counterpart.
Chidambaram said that if the Government failed to release the letters, some enterprising journalist would do so and dismissed the present Finance Minister’s claim that the release of the letters would prejudice the investigations or help lalit Modi.
He also sought to know who took the decision not to file an appeal in the Supreme Court in the passport cancellation case of lalit Modi. Besides, he took strong exception to “blatantly false” references made by Swaraj to Rajiv Gandhi and alleged payments to him by Ottavio Quattorocchi in the Bofors case. “Why did she not turn to Jaitley and seek confirmation of her allegationsIJ” Chidambaram added.
Members of the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) too protested by shaving off their hairs and dispatching it to the Prime Minister. IYC led by president Amradinder Singh Raja threatened that youth Congress will hold similar protest nationwide if the corrupt BJP leaders do not resign. “PM should test DNA of youth of the nation from the hair and nail samples sent to him and analyze the demand of the youth of the nation,” he said.