‘Najma ticket violates anti-defection law’

Much as this description may irk Heptulla, he described her as a migratory bird and attacked the BJP for giving her a Rajya Sabha ticket. He said the ‘‘journey of the migratory bird has ended with a Rajya Sabha ticket from BJP’’. The former Congress leader, according to him, was only looking for the feed which the BJP provided.

Charging the BJP with a U-turn on corruption, he said, ‘‘They did not let Parliament proceedings move on after the President’s address over the issue of tainted ministers and now they are offering a Rajya Sabha ticket to a person who has misused public money.’’

He wondered how could the BJP support Heptulla whose canteen bill stood as high as Rs 38 lakh.

He pointed out that she had spent over Rs 2.65 crore on foreign visits. Pointing out that her bills were cleared by the Finance Ministry, he said it clearly established

the ‘‘friendly equation between her and the BJP.’’ Sibal demanded an inquiry in to the expenses incurred by Heptulla.

The Congress leader said Heptulla had gone to the extent of asking people in the Chandni Chowk constituency to vote for the BJP candidate.

When asked about Samata Party leader Jaya Jaitly’s poser to him over the genuineness of Tehelka tapes, he sought to hurl the question back at her.

He said he had been asked how did he know that the tapes were not doctored and said by the same token, ‘‘how can they claim that tapes are not doctored’’.

Alongside, he sought to know how could the BJP-led government describe Tehleka tapes as doctored and prosecute Army officials on the basis of some other videotapes.

He said the BJP was adopting double-standards. ‘‘On the one hand, they give a clean chit to their ministers saying that the tapes are doctored while on the other hand they prosecute Army officials on the basis of videotapes.