Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday linked the massive rise in the business fortunes and personal wealth of businessman Gautam Adani to the Modi government coming to power in 2014, as he launched a sharp attack on the BJP dispensation over the Adani issue.
His charges in Lok Sabha drew a sharp response from the treasury benches, with Law Minister Kiren Rijiju asking him to not level "wild allegations" and furnish proof of his claims.
Speaker Om Birla also asked him to focus on the President's address and disapproved of the Congress leader displaying a picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Adani in the business tycoon's plane to highlight their alleged proximity.
Participating in the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President's Address in Lok Sabha as the first opposition speaker, Gandhi also questioned the Agniveer scheme for recruiting defence personnel claiming that youths aspiring to be in the army were not on the same page as the government on the scheme.
Senior officers have said the scheme will weaken the army, he claimed.
Gandhi said he learnt a lot during his recently concluded Bharat Jodo Yatra and got the opportunity to listen to the inner voice of India.
He said the highlights of what people told him during the Kanyakumari-to-Kashmir march were the issues of unemployment, price rise and farmers' problems. Adani's name was also frequently heard from people across states as they wondered how he is successful in every business he enters, Gandhi claimed.
'Baseless, shameless and reckless allegations'
BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad accused Gandhi of making baseless, shameless and reckless allegations against Prime Minister Modi, and charged that the Congress and the Gandhi family were involved in "big scams" which "tarnished" the image of the country.
"Deal and commission" have been part of the Congress' working culture and the party has been in distress as the Modi government eliminated these corrupt practices, the former law minister told reporters soon after Gandhi launched a sharp attack on the prime minister over the Adani issue.
"Rahul Gandhi made baseless, shameless and reckless allegations against PM Modi," Prasad told reporters outside Parliament.
Voters will teach him a lesson in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls as they did in 2019 after Rahul Gandhi, the then Congress president, had accused Modi of corruption in the Rafale aircraft deal.
In fact, it is the Congress and its leaders who were involved in all those big scams which tarnished the image of India, he added, citing the corruption cases related to the Bofors deal and the Adarsh society.
Prasad also referred to the National Herald case and the AgustaWestland scam case to attack the Gandhi family. "It's time to revive the memory of Rahul Gandhi on corruption."
Citing the National Herald case, in which Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi are accused, Prasad said both are on bail and also raked up the allegations against his brother-in-law Robert Vadra.
The Congress party is based on the twin pillars of corruption and protecting the corrupt, he said. "Corruption and giving protection to the corrupt have been the history of Rahul Gandhi and his family."
Modi has been running an honest government which has made the laws against fugitive persons and corrupt practices like benami transactions more stringent, the BJP leader said, adding that many absconding accused have been extradited to India and similar exercise is on against others.
The Adani Group is in the eye of a storm following the allegations of fraud and stock manipulation by a US-based short-selling firm. The company's stocks have been hammered even though the group has rejected the charges.
