Congress has a question: Who paid for Narendra Modi’s chartered flights as Gujarat Chief Minister?

Singhvi said his claim was based on reply to an RTI query by senior Gujarat Congress leader Arjun Modhwadia. “These trips are clearly trips by a constitutional functionary…. They are provided for by private persons and we do not have any account of them so far,” he said. Among the 100 trips, he said there are four foreign travels.

“In July 2007 to Switzerland, in June 2007 to South Korea, in April 2007 to Japan and November 2006 to China. They are all by a chartered firm called Planet Aviation…. The people accompanying him are… the who’s who of industry in India, all CMD-level people…. These foreign trips and domestic trips raise the six-seven issues,” he said.

“Under the law of our country, any constitutional position holder… must declare a gift above Rs 500 and must put it in the toshakhana. If the state government has not paid for these trips even partially, it is deemed to be a gift to that constitutional position holder. It is not a question of doing it for Vibrant Gujarat or for Gujarat’s industry, it is the question of receiving a benefit from beneficiaries of the Gujarat industrial policy because somebody has to pay.”

“There is no free lunch, somebody has to pay for this and that somebody has to be those beneficiaries of the state industrial policy travelling with a constitutional position holder,” he said.

Singhvi also hit out at Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman who held a press conference on Tuesday on Vadra’s alleged links with Bhandari who the CBI has linked to the Pilatus aircraft deal.

He said the press release had stated that the delivery of all basic trainer aircraft from Pilatus had been completed in October 2015. “So from 2012-2015 and, in particular from 2014 to 2015, no black listing, no cancellation, no allegation of commission or illegality or corruption. In fact, you are listing it as a great achievement, the delivery,” he said.