The Congress on Monday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of inducting “tainted and criminal” elements in the Cabinet, inviting a sharp rebuttal from Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
Almost as soon as Congress General Secretary Ajay Maken had concluded labelling Sunday’s Cabinet expansion as an exercise in promoting “criminals and corrupt” politicians, the Finance Minister mounted a counter offensive.
Maken had specifically targeted three new inductees in the Council of Ministers — YS Chowdhary, Ram Shankar Katheria and Giriraj Singh. Jaitley refuted all allegations against them.
“Unlike the UPA where the Prime Minister neither had the first nor the last word on any action or policy initiative, we now have a government where the PM has the last word.
“He checks the credentials and facts with regard to every individual who concerns the government.
“The allegations being levelled by the Congress are entirely baseless and do not behove the representatives of a national party. There is no truth in any of the instance that has been cited,” said Jaitley.
Maken had earlier demanded an apology from the PM for his “failure” to deliver on his election promises and sought the resignation of Chowdhary, citing bank documents that purportedly proved that his company has defaulted on repayment of ₹317.6 crore of loans with the Central Bank of India.
“Did you make him a Minister to save him from default? The government should come clean on it and the Minister should resign,” Maken said.
The Congress leader also said Katheria has a record of as many as 23 criminal cases against him in the affidavit filed with the Election Commission.
“Perhaps, no other MP has such a bulky criminal record,” Maken said.
He further said Income Tax authorities had recovered cash worth ₹1.25 crore from Giriraj Singh’s house.
People want to know“What would the PM call a person from whose residence such huge cash is recovered and the matter is being inquired by the Income Tax authorities? People of this country want to know whether the PM would call him tainted or not,” he added.
“Congress wants to know from Modi why there is such a huge gap between his words and deeds. You talk about ‘cleaning Parliament of criminals’, but you go on inducting tainted ministers,” Maken said.
According to Jaitley, there is “not a shred of truth” in any of the allegations. “Mr YS Chowdhary has been a businessman. There was an issue with a loan he had taken from a bank.
“But the bank has now restructured the loan and there is nothing criminal or inappropriate about it. Should he stop doing business? Is that what is being suggested?” he said.
“With regard to what is being said about our Minister from Agra, all I can say is that the Akhilesh Yadav Government in Uttar Pradesh has levelled cases against all BJP workers and leaders.
“They are not cases involving any criminality or moral turpitude. These cases pertain to political agitations which is normal against any politician in this country. About Giriraj Singh, there is no case and no criminality. The whole thing is absurd,” said Jaitley.