With the Rajya Sabha witnessing frequent disruption by the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday tore into it over alleged involvement of its leaders in corruption cases and also questioned former Finance Minister P Chidambram’s role in the 2G scam, raking up recent Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids at firms linked to his son.
Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also raised the issue of alleged corruption charges against chief ministers of Kerala, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand at a press meet and demanded the Congress to take action against the leaders.
Citing a recent notification by the Swiss government, she said it had “reinforced” the charge that Preneet Kaur, a minister in the UPA government, had an undisclosed bank account in Switzerland. Kaur is Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh’s wife.
BJP’s attack indicated that there was still no thaw in the frosty relations between the two parties, hopes of which were raised after PM Narendra Modi recently met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and former PM Manmohan Singh and sought their cooperation for the passage of GST Bill.
Sitharaman, however, said she would not “imagine” that the attack on Congress would have a bearing on its stand on the GST bill. “GST is something which is their (Congress) Bill. It is in national interest. If these are becoming an issue because of which Congress party, and I would not imagine that, would not support GST, then it would be a sad day," she said.