CHANDIGARH: Hours after taking oath as cabinet ministers, Anil Vij and Capt Abhimanyu today said the BJP government would order a thorough probe into the alleged land scams and not spare anyone, even Robert Vadra or former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
Abhimanyu said all the alleged land scams of the previous Hooda government will be probed, while Vij said anyone found guilty will be dealt as per law. Congress responded sharply to the remarks.
"We will order a thorough probe into all land scams of the last ten years. Even if a single inch of land is found to have been acquired in violation of rules, those found guilty will be given exemplary punishment so that no one dares to indulge in such scams in future in Haryana," Abhimanyu, the Narnaund MLA, told reporters here.
Vij, the five-time MLA from Ambala Cantt, hit out at the previous Congress regime for allegedly indulging in scams and corruption.
"Nearly 70,000 acres of land was acquired from farmers and sold at high profits. We will order probe and anyone found guilty, be it any official, Robert Vadra or (former Chief Minister) Bhupinder Singh Hooda or anyone else, will not be spared," Vij told reporters here.
Notably, BJP and other parties had in the run up to the assembly polls attacked the previous Hooda government over the Robert Vadra land deal.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi while campaigning for BJP in Haryana had also kept the alleged land scams in the state at the centre of his attack.
The ministers' remarks drew sharp reactions from the Congress. Senior Congress leader Raashid Alvi said, "This statement shows the arrogance of the Haryana government. No government should take any decision out of revenge. It appears they want to take this decision out of revenge."
"They (BJP leaders) should remember there is no permanent government in any democratic system... Sometimes they are in power, sometimes in opposition... They should not make our country like Pakistan," Alvi told a news channel.
"When it was our government, we didn't investigate the son-in-law of then Prime Minister... We did not want to set any precedent that people may think that out of revenge we are doing anything.
"So I demand if they are investigating Vadra (son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi) and they have respect for the law, they should investigate the son-in-law of former Prime Minister also," Alvi said.