NEW DELHI: THE revelations of Robert Vadra’s alleged ‘benami’ property dealings in London through middleman Sanjay Bhandari, had Congress president Sonia Gandhi come out, all-guns blazing, against the Modi government on Tuesday.
As during the ‘Save Democracy’ march in the backdrop of the AgustaWestland scam accusations against the UPA, this time too she did not bring up the graft charges until asked to comment on the Enforcement Directorate probe against son-in-law Vadra. Instead, she targeted Prime Minister Modi, accusing him of acting like an Emperor (“Shehenshah”) instead of “as the Prime Minister”.
The Congress has already lambasted the second anniversary “celebrations’’ of the government. Gandhi added to that, saying, “Our nation is facing drought, poverty, farmer is in pain; at these times a “show” is not appropriate.”
When asked about the Vadra probe, she dared the government to conduct impartial investigations into the allegations. Breaking into Hindi, she said: “Yeh bhi ek conspiracy hai, ‘Congress-mukt Bharat’ ka matlab kya hai? Roz bahaana banate hain, galat ilzaam lagate hain (This too is a conspiracy to make India Congress-free. They make different excuses everyday and allege wrong things.)
“Without any bias, let’s have an investigation in the matter. The truth shall be revealed,” she angrily added, before walking off.
Her outburst was unusual. The Congress has maintained Vadra is a private citizen and the party has nothing to say about allegations surrounding his real estate dealings although individually party leaders have come to his defense.
The party’s deputy leader in Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma too attacked the government on its “wasteful expenditure” when the “economy, employment is at an all time low”. He claimed “classified documents were selectively leaked’’ to the media to malign the image of the Congress.
BJP chief Amit Shah had countered charges against the “celebrations”, saying the government was presenting its two-year report card to the people.