Modi targets Rahul over association with UK firm

Sagar: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday attacked Rahul Gandhi over his alleged association with UK-based firm 'Backops', saying its name was akin to the Congress leader's actions of indulging in "back office operations" and not from the front.

Referring to the 10-year UPA rule under then prime minister Manmohan Singh, Modi also alleged that India lost an entire decade of the 21st century after the Congress installed "family loyalist" Singh as the PM in 2004 because the "prince" was not ready and all efforts to "train" him went waste at that time.

Attacking Gandhi in an election rally here, Modi said all his scams are now being "unearthed from land, air and water" as it has now come out to be known that the Congress leader's business partner in the UK company got a submarine contract despite an experience in liasoning only.

The Union Home Ministry recently served a notice to Gandhi, saying it received a representation from BJP MP Subramanian Swamy in which it was brought out that a company named Backops Limited was registered in the United Kingdom in 2003 with the Congress leader as one of its directors. The Home Ministry said Swamy's letter also mentioned that in the British company's annual returns filed on October 10, 2005, and October 31, 2006, Gandhi's date of birth has been provided as June 19, 1970, and his nationality as British. Targeting Gandhi over his alleged association with the UK-based firm, Modi said, "The 'naamdar' made a company in England, the name of which was akin to his actions. The name of the company was Backops... Means back office operations. He never worked for the company from front and did operations from behind the curtains".

"This behind-the-curtain firm closed in 2009. But now it has come out that the naamdar's partner in the company got a submarine contract in 2011. The firm owner was his friend. Now people are asking the Congress naamdar that your partner only had liasoning experience, how he got a chance to enter the submarine line?" Modi questioned.

Modi said since the matter has come to light, the "naamdar and his raagdarbaris" (sycophants) have gone silent.

"The Bofors gun, helicopter (AgustaWestland chopper) and now submarine, as deep as you dig... Whether 'jal' (water), 'nabh' (air) and 'thal' (land), naamdar's acts are coming out.

Michel Mama (Christian Michel, the alleged middleman arrested in the AgustaWestland chopper scam), is already blurting out secrets," he said.