Modi govt will put corrupt behind bars: BJP on ED chargesheet against Gandhis
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday kept up the heat on the Gandhi family on the issue of corruption and asserted that those who indulged in corruption and usurped farmers’ land will be put behind bars under the “honest government” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
If the Gandhi family has filled its coffers with people’s money, every paisa will be recovered from them, BJP national spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia said at a press conference at the party headquarters here.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a chargesheet against Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and others before a special court here in the National Herald case for allegedly laundering Rs 988 crore.
Meanwhile, Robert Vadra, businessman and brother-in-law of Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, appeared before ED for the third straight day on Thursday for questioning in a money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in a 2008 Haryana land deal.
“It is the resolve of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to eradicate corruption, put the corrupt behind bars and return the usurped land to farmers. If the Gandhi family has filled its coffers with people’s money, every paisa will be recovered from them,” Bhatia said.
“Robert Vadra feels that he is above the law of the country. He doesn’t realise that this is an honest government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi under which the investigative agencies are no longer caged parrots,” he said.
The central probe agencies are “honest hawks” under the Modi government and they “bite the corrupt” as well as ensure that those out on bail in corruption cases are sent to jail, the BJP spokesperson added.
Bhatia said a “fierce war” has been waged against the corrupt and corruption under the Modi government’s policy of zero tolerance towards graft.
“People of the country must be realising the might of an honest government now,” he said.
The Congress on Wednesday described the ED action against Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi as vendetta politics.
Vadra told PTI on Wednesday that he was being targeted for being part of the Gandhi family. He also claimed that people of the country “do not trust the probe agencies”.
The BJP spokesperson slammed the Congress for calling the ED’s action against the Gandhis and Vadra vendetta politics and said if it was so, then they would have got relief from the Supreme Court.
“But they did not get any relief,” Bhatia said.
“While brother-in-law and land mafia Robert Vadra usurped land, the name of Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi figured in the National Herald case, Sonia Gandhi’s name figured in the VVIP chopper scam and Rajiv Gandhi’s name figured in the Bofors scam… The Gandhi family is ‘khandaani’ corrupt and chor (thief),” he charged.
The BJP leader claimed that in the Haryana land deal case, laws were flouted by the erstwhile chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress government to benefit Vadra at the behest of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
“Robert Vadra has said that he is a hard target. He is not a hard target but a hardened criminal. And it is our government’s commitment to put such hardened criminals behind bars,” he said.
Bhatia also took a swipe at Vadra for calling himself a mass leader, saying, “He is a mass land grabber in the eyes of the people and farmers.”
He also accused Vadra of trying to “openly threaten” the probe agency by saying that they would also have to suffer when the time changes.
“The right place for the corrupt is behind bars, no matter which family such a person belongs to. And this also applies to the one who thinks he is above the law by keeping a fake surname,” the BJP leader said in an apparent reference to Rahul Gandhi.
India