Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley on Sunday said with slew of graft cases surfacing during the UPA government, corruption has taken the shape of a “small scale industry”, and the upcoming Lok Sabha polls will be a fight between morality and immorality.
“Upcoming Lok Sabha election will not just be a political fight but a ‘Dharam Yudh’ (fight for justice) between morality and immorality,” said the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha.
Mr. Jaitley was addressing party workers in Chandigarh on Sunday.
Speaking on the graft cases, he said, “With 2G, coal scam, Bofors scam running into several lakhs of crores, corruption during the UPA government has taken a form of small scale industry.”
Mr. Jaitley also attacked the Centre over CBI, alleging that Congress has been “misusing” the agency to not only save its ministers and other Congressmen but also to keep itself in power.
“Every time Congress government needed numbers for survival, the CBI suddenly went soft on the SP and BSP leaders who are facing probe for disproportionate assets.
“They have even attacked IB for vote bank politics, however Congress should remember CBI does not gets votes it is the people who vote and the mood of the people is clearly with BJP,” he said.
The BJP leader said that Congress was indulging in “crony Capitalism” and Congressmen have become “name lenders” as in the Coal scam, where the blocks were allotted “with name chits being passed on to the screening committee”.
“So large has been the degradation that even the status report to the Supreme Court was fudged to save those from the PMO and the Coal Ministry,” he claimed.
He also attacked former Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal. “It seems the whole Bansal family is running an industry of postings and promotions,” he said.
“The government may have manipulated the CBI, but there is a clear overlap in the Railgate phone conversations and the file movements,” he said.
“Under these circumstances of failure on all the fronts there is no leadership in Congress to inspire or infuse confidence, and it seems to be ducking a political fight by going without a head,” he said.
On the other hand, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has been leading not only in all the opinion polls but also in the psyche of the country, Mr. Jaitley said.
On the economic front, Mr. Jaitley said that today even Indian businessmen are not willing to invest in the country.
In such circumstances, irrespective of the policy changes being made, FDI is not going to come, he claimed, adding that “the current account deficit is becoming unmanageable, but instead of working to improve the economy, the Congress government wants to open the coffers to buy votes.”
“Our borders have become porous and our relations with neighbours have touched a nadir. Pakistan has beheaded our jawan and is spreading terrorism in our country, still the Prime Minister is extending the hand of friendship,” he said.
He claimed that when Atal Bihari Vajpayee had initiated peace talks with Pakistan they were on the pre-condition that there would be no terrorism against India emanating from the Pakistan soil which was accepted by Pakistan.
Taking about Chandigarh, he said, “It is unfortunate that an important and respected city like Chandigarh was on the country’s centre stage recently due to the corruption of its elected Member of Parliament Pawan Kumar Bansal.”
Chandigarh Parliamentary Constituency is an indicator of the national mood, and this time the whole country will be looking towards Chandigarh to see if the city voters will take a moral high ground and root out the corrupt.
