Let UPA Emulate Gadkari’s Example in Facing Probe, says Advani Aide
From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore
Bangalore, Oct 26: Without taking any position on the charges of alleged irregularities in the investments in BJP National President Nitin Gadkari’s Purti Group, BJP patriarch L K Advani’s former aide Sudheendra Kulkarni on Friday challenged the Congress-led UPA regime to show the same standards of probity as the BJP leader in offering to face a probe into the charges against him.
Several Congress leaders and Cabinet ministers in the UPA regime have been accused of far more serious allegations of corruption and other irregularities with damning evidence, Kulkarni said wondering why none of the Congress leaders were ready to face any probe.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself has been accused of irregularities in the coalgate scam but was not interested in facing any kind of probe while Gadkari has offered to undergo any inquiry. ``Let Congress leaders and UPA too follow the same example,” he said.
He, however, declined answer questions on the charges against Gadkari and contended that the inquiry report must be awaited.
“Long before the national highway development project was conceptualised, he (Gadkari) had made the first expressway in the country as Maharashtra PWD Minister and he did it without facing any allegations of corruption,” he said.
The charges regarding the alleged bogus investments in the Purti Group owned by Gadkari by sugarcane farmers must be investigated, he said and pointed out that the BJP national president had clearly stated that he was open to any impartial probe.
To questions on former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa’s plans to quit the BJP, Kulkarni said losing a leader like him certainly was a matter of concern for the BJP as the Lingayat strongman had contributed a lot to the growth of BJP in the State for the last four decades. Kulkarni said it was unfortunate that many wrong-doings and unsavoury incidents had taken place during the former chief minister’s rule.
All party leaders should honour the aspirations of the people, who wanted good governance from the BJP.
On the demand for projecting Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate, Kulkarni said the party high command would take a decision at the right time.
Undoubtedly, Modi is a very capable and powerful leader and would definitely will handsomely in the ongoing Gujarat assembly polls, he said pointing out that whether the Gujarat leader should enter the national political scene cannot be decided at this stage as general elections would be due in 2014 unless UPA regime falls much earlier.