New Delhi, Sept 27(ANI): Senior Congressman Jagdambika Pal on Thursday urged whistleblower Anjali Damania to prove her accusations concerning alleged liaisoning between the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Rs.72, 000-crore irrigation scam in Maharashtra.
Being largely non-committal on BJP's counter-attack on Congress- BJP's Prakash Javadekar had accused Congress of spreading the canard- Pal instead chose to blame India Against Corruption (IAC) for frequent dithering.
"She needs to prove it. People of IAC are prone to change stands and accuse the parliamentary system. IAC started its campaign for Lokpal with Anna, now they have parted ways. Until recently they were talking about Lokpal and a social movement, now they are suddenly giving a political option. We can't take IAC claims on face value, they need to prove it," Pal said.
Earlier, in a new twist to the political crisis in Maharashtra that has risen from an irrigation scam, one of the whistleblowers, Anjali Damania, named BJP president Nitin Gadkari for trying to suppress it.
Damania said that when she met Gadkari in August at his home in Worli, Mumbai, he told her to not push too hard to expose the scam.
Damania said that the BJP's attitude was very discouraging, as was that of Gadkari, who even allegedly stated to having business ties with Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar.
Without naming Gadkari, Damania said 'the opposition party chief' told her "we help Pawar and he helps us, can't do anything in this scam."
She claimed to have met Gadkari thrice, once in Delhi in June 2011 and twice in Mumbai, in August 2011 and August 14 this year.
"Since the NCP and the Congress are together, we went to the opposition party, but they strictly told me that they could not do anything about it. Their party president himself told me that he could not do anything regarding this; he shares businesses with Sharad Pawar. They help each other in their matters. So, he could not do anything about it. We were shocked after getting such kind of a reply," she said.
The BJP is in the opposition in Maharashtra. NCP leader Ajit Pawar, who has submitted his resignation from the post of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister, has been accused by his political opponents of being involved in the irrigation scam when he was the state's water resources minister. (ANI)
