Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday attacked Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan for filing a defamation suit against him after he mistakenly took his son's name in the Panama Papers case and said he did not file any case when he talked about Vyapam, e-tender and illegal mining cases asking whether these were "true".
"Last time I had said mistakenly that the name of Shivraj's son is there in the Panama Papers. I realised it and said that I committed a mistake as there are a number of scams," he said addressing a public meeting in Madhya Pradesh, where assembly polls will be held on November 28.
Gandhi said that within a few minutes, Chauhan said that as he had given a wrong statement he would file a defamation suit against him.
"Shivrajji tell me one thing. You filed a defamation suit against me over the Panama Papers issue. But on Vyapam scam, e-tendering scam and illegal mining you did not file a defamation suit on me. Are these scams true," Gandhi asked, questioning the Chief Minister's "silence" on these issues.
He said that "there are elections in several states and in most of these states, BJP Chief Ministers are corrupt. In Rajasthan, the son of Chief Minister (Vasundhra Raje) took Rs 10 crore from Lalit Modi. In Chhattisgarh, Raman Singh's son name appeared in the Panama Papers. And here in MP, there is Vyapam scam, illegal mining scam and e-tendering scam cases," he said.
Attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Congress leader said, before coming to power in 2014, in all his public meeting speeches he talked about "corruption, corruption and corruption".
More From This Section
"But now look carefully to all his speeches now. Now there is no reference of corruption, employment and farmer issues," he said.
Gandhi said Modi used to ask people then to not make him Prime Minister but a watchman. "But Modiji in his speech did not tell you that who he would be guarding whether Anil Ambani, Mehul Choksi, Nirav Modi or Lalit Modi," he thundered.
"Some took away Rs 10,000 crore and some Rs 30,000 crore from the country and the watchman after stealing the money from the pockets of the people put in the pockets of an Indian industrialist," he said.
Gandhi said that the UPA government's deal for 126 Rafale fighter jets with French government was changed by Modi to favour his industrialist friend.
"Even former French President (Francois Hollande) has called our Prime Minister a thief," he said.
The Congress leader also accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre of not fulfilling its promises and said, "Modi had said we shall waive farmers loans but that has not been done yet. And once we are voted to power in the state, within 10 days we would waive the farm loans," he said.
--IANS
aks/vsc/vm