With Congress targeting the Centre by raising the Lalit Modi issue again, BJP today dismissed it as a “diversionary tactic” deployed by the opposition party to run away from inconvenient questions involving ‘Young Indian’, a company in which Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are “majority” stake holders.
Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said Congress was latching onto an “old and stale” issue and BJP leaders Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj had exposed it in Parliament with their replies in Monsoon session.
“When Jaitley and Swaraj gave their replies, they had no answers. Congress was completely exposed. It is an old and stale issue. Congress is just using a diversionary tactic and running away from inconvenient questions (about Young Indian),” he said.
He said it was the then UPA government that did not do enough to bring the formal IPL czar to book.
Alleging that Young Indian took loan from a firm involved in black money deals and questioning the manner of its acquisition of Associated Journals, which owns expensive real estate in many cities, Javadekar took potshots at Congress, saying it should explain such “magical formula” so that youths could benefit from it.
He also raked up controversial land deal involving Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra.
“He buys land for Rs 8 crore and the seller does not even encash the cheque. He then sells the same land to the same seller for 58 crore in a few months. Congress gives a loan of Rs 90 crore to Associated Journals and Young Indian is issued shares worth Rs 90 crore. Congress should explain these magical formula so that our youngsters could benefit,” he said mockingly.
Asked what BJP governments in Haryana and at the Centre were doing if the party found the transactions involving Vadra and Young Indian questionable, Javadekar said the “governments must be doing something”.
Congress has dismissed BJP’s charge saying it was levelling baseless allegations as it sensed imminent defeat in the Bihar assembly elections.
Sonia and Rahul Gandhi owns 38 per cent each in Young India, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said.