New Delhi, Feb 7 (NIE): With Robert Vadra being questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday, the Congress and BJP engaged in a war of words.
Addressing a press conference, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra alleged that Vadra got “kickbacks” from petroleum and defence deals during the UPA regime. He alleged that Vadra “bought eight to nine properties in London” from the money he got as kickbacks in 2008-09.
“What is the formula of becoming a crorepati from roadpati?” he asked. Alleging that “corruption” has been the “core agenda” of the Congress, he said, “Everybody knows that every member of the family is out on bail… The 2019 Lok Sabha election is a fight between the gang of corrupt versus transparency of Narendra Modi government.”
According to a PTI report, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said Vadra’s questioning was a “measure of the success of the Indian democracy”. “…It is the success of the will of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government, when a gentleman hailing from a well-known family had to submit before the law,” he said.
Hitting back, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said: “Election season is on and we expect that every day, when a summons is to be answered, a press conference will be held… Sambit Patra is singing the same tune in February 2019. You are on your way out in two months. Is it not a remarkable comment on you, and not on those who you are commenting on… that five years down the line, all you can do is hold press conferences.”
“If you have all this massive amount of material and inputs and data, why are you giving it in press conferences? You are the Government of India… If you had started giving this very valuable material to the Government of India’s agencies which have been misused… for the last five years, maybe we should have got some facts,” he said.
“Today, you hold a press conference in February 2019, having had the entire state machinery and entire central government machinery at your disposal. They have found nothing of a legally culpable character. So obviously the attempt is to mislead, confuse, confound and create an ambience just before elections…” he said.
Meanwhile, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra took charge as an AICC general secretary on Wednesday.