Congress President Sonia Gandhi today termed “baseless” the allegations linking her and party leaders to bribes in the AgustaWestland chopper deal. She said she was not “afraid” of being “cornered” on the issue.
She asked the government what it had been doing in power in the last two years on the issue, and demanded that the ongoing inquiry be completed impartially.
“I am not afraid of anyone cornering me, as there is no basis to that. All the accusations they are throwing at us are false,” Ms. Gandhi told reporters in the Parliament complex, as the BJP sought to target her on the deal.
“Where are the proofs? They are lying. They are part of a strategy of character assassination, which we have known these people indulge in,” she said.
“The government is there for the last two years. What are they doing? Inquiry is there, why don’t they complete it? Complete it as soon as possible, impartially,” she said.
Ms. Gandhi’s political secretary and senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel also rubbished the allegations against him and the party as “absolutely baseless.”
“This government, when they are saying all these things outside and inside Parliament, why can’t they investigate,” he said.
“If there is something against me, they should find out and they should hang me,” he said when asked by reporters for his reaction to the allegations.
