NEW DELHI: Claiming that Narendra Modi-led government has won acclaim for its work nationally and internationally, BJP chief Amit Shah said would party would not budge an inch and would fight it out in face of onslaught from the Congress.
Shah told party MPs during the BJP’s parliamentary party meeting held in presence of PM Modi on Wednesday morning that speaking without verifying the facts could in fact be furthering the propaganda of the Congress. This was in reference to the utterances and letter written by senior leader Shanta Kumar to Shah over corruption cases tarnishing party’s image.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley though not naming Shanta Kumar said such utterances could actually help the Congress.
At the first parliamentary party meeting of this session, Shah said MPs should go all out to target the Congress over their scams. MPs were given a specially prepared booklet which lists all the scams in the Congress-ruled states. The booklet aims at educating the MPs on issues to talk about and raise in the coming days to counter the Congress’ offensive.
Prime Minster Modi also gave a brief pep talk to the MPs. He also asked the MPs to use information given to them. Sources said PM had earlier on told his cabinet colleagues that there was no need to be defensive as no wrong has been done by his government. “PM also was apprehensive of the opposition’s demands. he said during the last session, the government agreed to opposition demand of sending bills like GST and Land Bill to parliamentary panels with an assurance that these will be passed this session. But some of the parties were now not keen on it,” sources said.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj whose resignation has been demanded by Congress for her alleged help to former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi, also spoke in the parliamentary party meeting.
She explained the issue in detail and the points she is likely to touch upon when she would reply on the Lalit Modi issue inside the parliament.
As part of the BJP strategy, after targeting the Congress on scams and corruption issues of their chief ministers, the BJP is preparing details of land acquired by all states in the last 10 years during the UPA regime according to the old act. The details pertaining to the compensation provided to farmers was also being collected so that these can be used to counter the Congress on the issue of contentious land bill.