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Journalism of Courage
A day after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi made a scathing attack on the government raising questions on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s links with Gautam Adani, the ruling BJP accused his family of indulging in corruption and “commission” practices and alleged that he is not able to stand the fact that the country is progressing under Modi.
Taking part in the debate over the motion of thanks in the Lok Sabha, senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said that Gandhi’s speech in the House on Tuesday was echoing “frustration, agony, anger and the sense of entitlement”.
“We could see the sense of entitlement that the governments have to be run by him, but this Modi came and (is) ruling this country. And that his party has lost 2014, 2019 and (is) going to lose 2024 also,” Prasad said.
Prasad as well as Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi accused Gandhi of making statements in the House without basis or documents of evidence. Earlier, Joshi said in the House that the Speaker has to take note of the fact that Gandhi had not authenticated the allegations nor had he given any notice to make the allegations. “Those have to be expunged and a privilege notice has to be sent to him,” he demanded. Speaker Om Birla said he would look into it.
Prasad, who responded outside Parliament to Gandhi’s allegations during his speech in the House, said in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday that Gandhi’s charge that a minister in Sri Lanka talked about pressure from Prime Minister Modi to give a power project to Adani had been denied by that government.
Prasad repeated the scams during the UPA regime and alleged that the Congress governments had tried to facilitate Bofors accused Ottavio Quattrocchi’s exit from India and later backed him to clear his accounts in a London bank. Prasad also referred to Gandhi’s brother-in-law Robert Vadra and the alleged land deals he was involved with.
Prasad said Gandhi was not able to digest India’s development under Modi and that the country is now developing made-in-India weapons which he said had taken away the “commission” practice from which the Gandhis benefited. He also cited Adani’s business deals in Indonesia in 2008 and Australia in 2009 and 2011 when the UPA was in power.
“What Rahul Gandhi has done yesterday is hurting the credibility of India in the economic world,” Prasad said, adding that Gandhi had opposed the startup initiatives of the BJP government too.
“You are not able to stand that the BJP is winning elections. What can we do if the people rejected you? You go to JNU to stand with tukde tukde gang and people have rejected you. People see Modiji is developing India,” he said.
Prasad also took exception to Gandhi’s attack against the RSS and reminded him that his forefathers also had done the same. “And now see, where has it reached? Where is the Congress party today, he asked.
With the Lok Sabha concluding the debate over the motion of thanks on Wednesday, Prime Minister Modi is expected to reply to the debate in the afternoon.
