Cong's charge against Rijiju political desperation: BJP

Rejecting Congress' charge against Union Minister Kiren Rijiju as "political desperation", BJP today said the opposition party has only scored a "self-goal" as the contract under question was awarded when Congress was in power in the Centre and Arunachal Pradesh as well.
BJP also trained its guns on Satish Verma, the Chief Vigilance Officer who flagged the alleged corruption involving Rijiju, saying he works as a "political fixer" for Congress and noted that he was removed from the post on the Central Vigilance Commission's directions for "misdemeanours and dereliction of duty".
"Congress party has made a wild allegation of corruption in the NEEPCO under Kameng Hydro Power Project in Arunachal Pradesh. The entire contract works for the main project and for transportation of boulders were allotted when it was in power.

"Congress party is incriminating itself by referring to any irregularities in these projects. Under Rahul Gandhi, it and its media department have scored many self goals and this is one of such instances," its spokesperson G V L Narsimha Rao said in a statement.
Defending Rijiju, who is the local MP, BJP said he was approached by people engaged by the contractor for movement of boulders and sought his help in getting their dues cleared.
"The MP forwarded the petition received from the affected villagers to the Ministry of Power for getting the matter examined. As a public representative, Kiren Rijiju intervened as a local MP to redress people's grievances purely on merit," Rao said.

The CVO concerned, Satish Verma, has made these baseless allegations against Rijiju and submitted these "so called vigilance reports" after he was removed from the post following CVC's orders, the BJP spokesperson said.

"The allegations made by the CVO against Kiren Rijiju are baseless, malafide and reinforce his shady past. For the Congress party to make allegations based on such flimsy reports reflects its political pusillanimity and desperation. BJP categorically rejects these motivated allegations with the contempt they deserve," Rao said.
BJP National Secretary Shrikant Sharma also insisted that the contractor, who is at the centre of allegations, is not Rijiju's cousin as alleged.

"It is a completely baseless charge. Congress and its friends have hatched a conspiracy to target BJP as they have not been able to find a single case of corruption against our government," he said.