BJP today dismissed the concern voiced by Shanta Kumar over graft charges against its Union ministers and chief ministers, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking MPs to strongly counter the opposition and party chief Amit Shah asserting that they have done no wrong.
Besides Modi, Shah and senior leader Arun Jaitley, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, whose resignation has been demanded by Congress for her alleged help to former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi, spoke in the parliamentary party meeting in which the issues raised by Kumar found no mention.
In what is seen as a rebuke to Kumar, Shah asked party leaders to speak with restraint and collect true information so that they could defend the party and aggressively counter the opposition charge, sources said.
Kumar was also present in the meeting. But neither he nor any other leader made any reference to his strongly-worded letter to Shah in which he had said "party workers are walking with their heads bowed" over the Vyapam scam allegations.
He had also sought constitution of an ethics committee within the party so that it could take timely action, referring to allegations surrounding Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh chief ministers Vasundhara Raje and Shivraj Singh Chouhan, besides Swaraj.
Modi, who spoke in the last, asked MPs to use the "masala" given to them, referring to earlier speeches of Shah, Jaitley and Swaraj, besides some literature handed over to the MPs, to effectively respond to the allegations levelled by the opposition.
