New Delhi, Nov.7 (ANI): The Congress Party on Wednesday assailed the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for giving a clean chit to Nitin Gadkari, its president, over various graft charges levelled against him.
Congress Party General Secretary Digvijay Singh, while expressing these views,said it was a clear attempt to cover up Gadkari's misdeeds.
"It is now clear that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Sangh (Hindu radical outfit Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) are completely supporting Nitin Gadkari. This shows that the man who compares Swami Vivekananda with Dawood Ibrahim is right, even if that man converts black money into white by opening fraud companies, he is right," said Digvijay Singh.
Reportedly, Gadkari's Purti Power and Sugar Limited was funded by dubious means, 18 out of 21 investors firms in his company bought equity shares more than their capital while four directors were common in these 18 companies and one of them happened to be his driver.
An infrastructure company named Ideal Road Builders (IRB) allegedly gave loan of rupees 1.65 billions to Purti Limited in 2001 -- two years after IRB was awarded road contracts by Gadkari during his tenure as Minister of Public Works Department in western state of Maharashtra.
But Gadkari had denied all these allegations and offered himself to a probe.
Voicing the views of Congress party, India's Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Manish Tewari, said that BJP was playing a cruel joke wherein the guilty is absolved of all the charges in which investigators and judges are also from the same party!
"This is very strange investigation where in the same person is the guilty, the investigator and the one who pronounces the judgement," said Tiwari
Two days ago, Gadkari while addressing a gathering at Bhopal in central state of Madhya Pradesh reportedly said that both renowned philosopher Swami Vivekananda and mafia don Dawood Ibrahim were men with high IQs (intelligence quotient), but one had dedicated that aptitude to social welfare, whilst another had used it to build a career in crime.
The remark invited unwanted trouble for him with his own party mates demanding his resignation.
Consequently, BJP leaders Ram Jethmalani and his son Mahesh Jethmalani had pressed for the resignation of Gadkari.
Mahesh Jethmalani resigned from the party's national executive as a mark of protest against Gadkari's deeds.
Speaking to reporters, federal lawmaker and senior advocate of Supreme Court, Ram Jethmalani said that he was disappointed by the party's decision as it would weaken their stand in the fight against corruption.
"I have said that I regret that they have rejected my advice but they are entitled to do it. I am not the senior leader of the party. It certainly weakens our moral grounds; it certainly takes away a part of our strength to fight this monster of corruption, the monster which being handles by the people in power. We are in the opposition. We have to show good standards, better standards than them and I will carry on my fight all alone if necessary whatever the BJP might do," said Jethmalani.
Dawood Ibrahim is India's most wanted man for his part in the country's most deadly bombings in Mumbai 1993, has eluded authorities for the past several years. He is believed to be hiding in Pakistan.
In 1993, Ibrahim and his brother Anees allegedly masterminded India's worst bombings, which killed at least 250 people and wounded more than 700 in Mumbai.
Swami Vivekananda, a disciple of Swami Ramakrishna, was an icon of reform in the late 19th century, espousing an international vision of harmony that has seen his popularity endure to the present day. (ANI)
