The Congress on Monday demanded the setting up of a commission of inquiry to investigate the allegations in a media report that a firm owned by the son of BJP president Amit Shah saw a huge rise in turnover after the party came to power in 2014.
The party also demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi drop Mr. Shah as BJP chief till the investigation was over. The BJP, however, continued to defend its party chief and his son, Jay Shah.
On Monday, the Congress’s broadside against the BJP was launched simultaneously from seven cities: while Deputy Leader of the Congress in the Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma addressed the press in Delhi and asked Mr. Modi to drop Mr. Shah as BJP president till the investigations are over, the party’s communication chief, Randeep Singh Surjewala, held fort in Jaipur. Similar press conferences were held in Kolkata, Mumbai, Bhopal, Patna and Lucknow.
Mr. Sharma also said the Prime Minister should answer questions on the case being asked by the Opposition. “He must break his silence …The Prime Minister speaks on every issue. Amit Shah should give up his post until the probe is over, like L.K. Advani ji did, Nitin Gadkari ji did when charges were levelled against them (in separate cases),” he said.
‘No smoke without fire’
Meanwhile, in Jaipur, Mr. Surjewala said Mr. Modi should relieve Mr. Shah from the party president’s post and get the claims probed by a two-member commission of Supreme Court judges. “Why shy away from a probe if there’s nothing wrong? There is no smoke without fire,” he said.
The BJP, however, defended Mr. Shah and his son, with Railway Minister Piyush Goyal also defending his decision to use the party platform to do so despite Mr. Jay Shah being a private citizen. “This article, through innuendo, was trying to create a slant. When you [ The Wire , the news website that published the story] put the picture of Prime Minister Modi, Amit Shah and even myself, then, obviously, as a leader of the party I have a responsibility to put the facts straight,” he said. The party said a defamation suit had been filed by lawyers of Mr. Jay Shah against seven people connected to The Wire.
