NEW DELHI: Even as the Congress and AAP continued to mount attacks on Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for alleged financial irregularities in his management of the DDCA, Prime Minister Narendra Modi came out in support of his cabinet colleague.
Speaking during the BJP’s weekly parliamentary party meeting attended by all MPs, Modi said Jaitley would emerge unscathed from the allegations as LK Advani did in the Hawala case. Modi said it was a planned move by the Congress to level “baseless” allegations against one minister after the other. He said the Finance Minister will come through “with flying colours” against the charges of corruption levelled against him.
He asked lawmakers to go all out to expose the Congress by holding rallies in their constituencies. As part of this strategy, in January, BJP MPs will spend one night in the assembly constituencies that fall under their Parliamentary constituencies to spread awareness about the “good work” being done by the Modi government and the Opposition’s campaign to “defame” it. In February, the BJP’s Lok Sabha MPs would fan out into neighbouring constituencies, while Rajya Sabha MPs would go to those areas where the BJP lost elections.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu, quoting Modi, said Congress has been levelling similar charges against other leaders.
“The Prime Minister gave the example of L K Advani. The government at that time tried to implicate him in the Hawala case. Advani came through with flying colours and the strategy of Congress boomeranged. Same thing is going to happen regarding allegations against Jaitley... Congress is inventing issues to defame the government,” Naidu said.
Advani’s case dates back to 1996. As Advani was, with other leaders, investigated by the CBI during P V Narasimha Rao’s Congress government, the BJP patriarch had resigned. The case, however, later collapsed due to lack of evidence.