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As part of the ruling BJP’s strategy to respond to the Congress’ demand for resignation of party leaders accused of corruption by mounting a counter-offensive, the party on Wednesday targeted two Congress leaders for different graft scandals.
In the first instance, the party fielded Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to release details of a sting operation involving Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat. A couple of hours later, two Ministers from the North East, Sarbanand Sonowal and Kiran Rijiju, arrived at the BJP headquarters to demand that the Congress “owns responsibility” for conviction of former Minister of State and “Indira Gandhi loyalist” P K Thungan who has been recently convicted in an old corruption case.
The BJP asserted that both the cases expose the Congress’ stand on corruption and prove that it is the Congress that “institutionalised corruption” in India.
Transcripts of the conversations between Harish Rawat’s personal secretary Mohammed Shahid, a middleman and a liquor baron, were released by the BJP. The conversations related allegedly to exchange of money between Rawat’s PS and the liquor baron.
Rawat has, in the meantime, rubbished the allegations and said the authenticity of the audio tape is yet to be ascertained. Some news channels simultaneously reported that the Chief Minister’s Secretary has been suspended pending an inquiry.
The Commerce Minister said this was a clear instance of corruption by the Congress.
‘Have proof’ “Uttarakhand Chief Minister and his hand-picked personal secretary were involved in a liquor scam and loot during Uttarakhand floods,” Sitharaman said. “We have a video proof which shows involvement of the Uttarakhand Chief Minister’s close confidante in the scam.
According to BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra, the party can confidently say that in the face of “monumental corruption” by the Congress, the BJP has a “pristine” record. “But when you talk of the Congress in State after State, there are skeletons abound, waiting to tumble out of their closet. The Congress has no moral right to talk about corruption,” said Patra.
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