Accusing Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary Ananth Kumar of having leaked Cabinet papers when he was a Minister in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government to controversial corporate lobbyist Niira Radia, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi lashed out at the principal Opposition on Friday.
“The BJP's role stands exposed,” Mr Singhvi alleged, stressing, “a senior BJP Minister's [links with] a lobbyist stands exposed. Cabinet papers were leaked during the BJP's tenure [in government].”
Mr. Singhvi's allegations come in the wake of revelations made by a former business partner of Ms. Radia in India Today that she had “fixed deals” along with Mr. Ananth Kumar.
Mr. Singhvi also asked why Ms. Radia's trust was given land in Delhi's Vasant Kunj during the NDA rule in 2002 and wanted to know why the former Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, had laid the foundation for this trust. “Was L.K. Advani admiring Radia's lobbying skills that he laid the foundation stone for this trust?”
Demanding that Mr. Ananth Kumar be dropped as general secretary of the BJP, he asked the party to answer a string of questions — why no action was taken though Swiss bank accounts were opened during this time by Ms. Radia; whether the money in these accounts belonged to her alone or to BJP leaders; whether these were the papers that Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyruppa, who is already under a cloud, had threatened to leak; whether the BJP would hold an anti-corruption rally outside Mr. Ananth Kumar''s residence; whether the BJP will expect the Congress to wait for an inquiry and proof in this case; and whether the BJP will disrupt Parliament on this issue.
The Congress got its opportunity to hit out at the BJP after Ms Radia's former partner Rao Dheeraj Singh on Thursday claimed on an English TV channel that Ms. Radia and Mr Ananth Kumar had “fixed deals” together. Mr. Singh also alleged that Mr. Ananth Kumar had passed sensitive Cabinet documents to Ms. Radia for her clients when he was a Minister in the NDA-led government, and she had transferred huge sums of money to a bank account in Zurich.
