JAIPUR : With the war of words between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress intensifying each day in the run up to the December 7 Assembly polls, BJP chief Amit Shah on Friday lashed out at the Congress saying the decisions that led to a build up of Non Performing Assets (NPAs) in the country were all taken during the erstwhile United Progressive Alliance regime.
Speaking in the Nagaur district of the Marwar region, which is considered politically important and is a farmer dominated area, he directly linked the UPA government with the NPAs. Stating media reports he said, “Rahul baba is talking about NPAs and making an issue out of it. These NPAs of banks happened during your regime, not ours. There is not a single NPA which came up during the Narendra Modi government. This is all the UPA government’s fault.”
In a veiled reference to Robert Vadra, Priyanka Gandhi’s husband, Shah quoted a media report and said, “Just today, there was a news report in the media, that a bank gave a loan of thousands of crores to a big company. The commission for it reached the son-in-law of the Congress [Vadra] in just 2-3 days. His company received it and then he bought 150 hectares of land in Rajasthan’s Bikaner which was sold for a large sum of money. The money went into the company accounts of the son-in-law.”
Shah added that businessmen like Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi were fleeing the country now because they were scared of persecution. He claimed that these men were “safe” during UPA rule and therefore carried out their dealings.
Shah also mounted an attack on Congress state president Sachin Pilot saying he had no right to questions the Modi government’s work for Rajasthan.
“Sachin Pilot asks what the Modi government has done for Rajasthan? He should look at the figures, when the UPA government was at the centre. Rajasthan got Rs 1.90 lakh crore from the 13th Finance Commission which was sanctioned by the UPA government. But Modi ji gave the state Rs 2.60 lakh crore in the 14th Finance Commission. We have given two-and-a-half times the money for Rajasthan’s development...” Shah said.
The Congress refuted Shah’s allegations and claimed that the saffron party was running out of electoral capital in the state.