Coming down heavily on Sharmila for claiming that she is an arrow released by her brother and YSR Congress Party president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, Congress MP V Hanumantha Rao has wondered what sort of an arrow it is and for what purpose it has been shot.
“Is the arrow released by Jagan a corrupt one? Or is that arrow the result of the ill-gotten wealth of Jagan? Or else the arrow is the symbol of looted public money which is stashed away in banks? Sharmila should explain it to the people of the state,” Rao demanded at a press conference in Delhi on Saturday.
The Rajya Sabha member wondered how YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s daughter was undertaking padayatra to defend the wrongdoings of her brother who amassed wealth by resorting to large-scale corruption.
Making light of the huge crowds turning up to see Sharmila, Rao said that such curiosity and attendance at the yatras of prominent persons in our country was very common. “When Sharmila hits the road, people become curious to see the daughter of YS Rajasekhara Reddy. Out of sympathy for the woman who lost her father and whose brother is behind the bars, people naturally throng the roads to console her. Even if a notorious murderer dies, people in our society will pay tribute to him. That is our culture,” said Rao.
He said all those people who were following the walkathon of Sharmila were brought by the YSRCP leadership. “They have appointed as many as 500 women to walk along with Sharmila till the end of the padayatra. The attendance of masses is totally orchestrated,” he said.
POSER TO KEJRIWAL: Questioning the silence of Arvind Kejriwal over Jagan’s alleged wrongdoings, Hanumantha Rao wanted to know whether the “self-styled anti-corruption crusader” was aware of the ill-gotten wealth of the YSRCP chief.
Rao on Saturday wrote a letter to Kejriwal demanding an explanation from him on why he was not saying anything on the Rs 43,000-crore ill-gotten wealth of Jagan Mohan Reddy.
“If Kejriwal continues his silence on the corrupt practices of Jagan, his credibility will be lost. If the anti-crusader selectively exposes scams, people will doubt his commitment.”
According to the Rajya Sabha member, the credit of making people know corruption and scams across the country, goes to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. Only because of her initiative did the UPA government enact the Right to Information Act which became a weapon in the hands of the social activists to expose scams across the country.