 "AAP says BJP and Congress are hand-in-glove")
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Sunday questioned the BJP's seriousness in initiating any investigation against the allegedly illegal land deals of Robert Vadra, after the BJP released a booklet containing a list of questionable land deals in Haryana and Rajasthan of Congress president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law. The booklet, Damad Shree: The Vadra get rich quick model, as well as an eight-minute film that described Vadra as "the king of scams", alleged that both Haryana and Rajasthan governments under the Congress "bent rules" to help Vadra. The AAP was quick to claim that the so-called revelations were mostly a cut-and-paste job from what AAP leaders Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan had made public in October 2012.
AAP asked BJP to "to make clear its stand whether its Rajasthan state government will initiate a probe into the illegal land deals" of Vadra. It said the BJP was "trying to mislead the nation by superficially raking up the Vadra issue during the elections, but is silent on whether anything will be done to find out the extent of the scam in its own ruled state of Rajasthan".
It claimed the Congress and BJP were "hand-in-glove" in suppressing issues related to corruption and misuse of office.
The booklet termed Vadra's business model as "kleptocratic rentiering". Prasad said Vadra would go to jail if he was investigated against.
Priyanka Gandhi responded to the allegations in Rae Bareli. "Let them (BJP) do and say what they want. I am not scared and will speak against their negative, destructive and shameful politics," she said, adding the BJP leaders were "baffled and scurrying like rats".
BJP's charges on Vadra
Vadra, through front companies and helped by Rajasthan's Ashok Gehlot government, bought 1,634 hectares of land near a highway and grid sub stations in Bikaner between June 2009 to August 2011. These purchases were made before the announcement of the Rajasthan government's solar energy policy. These tracts of land were later sold at higher rates to companies keen to invest in the solar energy project. Gehlot government bent rules and amended land ceiling act to help Vadra.
The booklet flagged Vadra's company Skylight Hospitality's allegedly "sweetheart" land deals in Gurgaon, Haryana with DLF, where Haryana government allegedly bent laws to help increase the cost of the agricultural land overnight by granting commercial colony licences.
It alleged Vadra and his family, including his wife Priyanka, and companies had landholdings of 147 acres in Haryana, which violated the land ceiling limit.
The booklet claimed an IAS officer handling a department that looked at changes in land use and colony licence permission from 2005 to 2013 in the office of the Haryana CM was appointed a member of the Union Public Service Commission in September 2013, barely five months after his retirement, in clear violation of rules.
It asked why an order of October 15, 2012 by Haryana's Director General Consolidation of Land Holdings that cancelled the mutation of Skylight and DLF Universal were not implemented.
The BJP alleged that a thematic audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General on "issue of licences for development of colonies, etc. after release of land" in Haryana in June 2013 was scuttled.
AAP asked BJP to "to make clear its stand whether its Rajasthan state government will initiate a probe into the illegal land deals" of Vadra. It said the BJP was "trying to mislead the nation by superficially raking up the Vadra issue during the elections, but is silent on whether anything will be done to find out the extent of the scam in its own ruled state of Rajasthan".
It claimed the Congress and BJP were "hand-in-glove" in suppressing issues related to corruption and misuse of office.
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The booklet, which is mostly a rehash of allegations against Vadra already in the public domain, highlighted his land deals in Haryana and Rajasthan. Prasad said Vadra's land deals attracted offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act, sections of the Indian Penal Code that related to non-disclosure of material facts, and offences under the Registration Act and Companies Act.
The booklet termed Vadra's business model as "kleptocratic rentiering". Prasad said Vadra would go to jail if he was investigated against.
Priyanka Gandhi responded to the allegations in Rae Bareli. "Let them (BJP) do and say what they want. I am not scared and will speak against their negative, destructive and shameful politics," she said, adding the BJP leaders were "baffled and scurrying like rats".
BJP's charges on Vadra
Vadra, through front companies and helped by Rajasthan's Ashok Gehlot government, bought 1,634 hectares of land near a highway and grid sub stations in Bikaner between June 2009 to August 2011. These purchases were made before the announcement of the Rajasthan government's solar energy policy. These tracts of land were later sold at higher rates to companies keen to invest in the solar energy project. Gehlot government bent rules and amended land ceiling act to help Vadra.
The booklet flagged Vadra's company Skylight Hospitality's allegedly "sweetheart" land deals in Gurgaon, Haryana with DLF, where Haryana government allegedly bent laws to help increase the cost of the agricultural land overnight by granting commercial colony licences.
It alleged Vadra and his family, including his wife Priyanka, and companies had landholdings of 147 acres in Haryana, which violated the land ceiling limit.
The booklet claimed an IAS officer handling a department that looked at changes in land use and colony licence permission from 2005 to 2013 in the office of the Haryana CM was appointed a member of the Union Public Service Commission in September 2013, barely five months after his retirement, in clear violation of rules.
It asked why an order of October 15, 2012 by Haryana's Director General Consolidation of Land Holdings that cancelled the mutation of Skylight and DLF Universal were not implemented.
The BJP alleged that a thematic audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General on "issue of licences for development of colonies, etc. after release of land" in Haryana in June 2013 was scuttled.