BJP takes on Congress after Lalit Modi tweets over meeting Vadras

“Happy to meet the Gandhi Family… in London. I had run into Robert and Priyanka separately,” Modi tweeted earlier in the day. BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra called the tweet “today’s big revelation.”

“Today’s big revelation is the fact that Lalit Modi had met the Gandhi family. Only yesterday he met Priyanka Gandhi and Robert Vadra. Why have they met him? Let me categorically put today that the issue is about Lalit Modi and Gandhi family… BJP demands Sonia Gandhi make a statement why the Gandhi family has been in touch with Lalit Modi all these years,” he said. Patra said UPA’s Finance Minister P Chidambaram “did not want Lalit Modi’s extradition from Britain despite the fact that UK was ready for extradition”. “Who was preventing them? The Gandhi family,” he alleged. “The matter starts and ends at the door of 10, Janpath.”

Hitting back at the BJP, the Congress said the BJP should tell its “black money stooges to not rely on red-herrings” to divert attention from the issue.

“Lalit Modi today has tried to come to the BJP government’s rescue by creating red herrings and diversionary tactics. He said he has ran into Robert Vadra and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in a restaurant. Looking at each other in a restaurant is neither morally improper nor a crime by any stretch of imagination. There was no social interaction of any nature between Lalit Modi and Robert Vadra and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra,” Surjewala said.

He said the government should answer pointed questions of “corruption and of quid pro quo” and of the help provided to Modi by a Union Minister and a Chief Minister. “If you see somebody in a restaurant, it is not a crime. ‘chhota Modi’ is helping ‘bada Modi’ with lies. It is a diversionary tactic of BJP to turn the attention towards non-issues. The government should speak about real issues and not hide behind Lalit Modi,” he said.

Senior leader and party spokesperson C P Joshi said there was nothing to clarify by the Congress as Modi himself has said that he had run into Robert and Priyanka. “This is not an allegation. You are taking inference out of it. What is to clarify when Lalit Modi has already clarified? It is a coincidence. What can anybody do if some one appears before some one in a restaurant?” Joshi said.