A day after it released a video clip showing senior BJP leader Uma Bharti castigating her party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, the Congress on Friday released another video recording, this time of yoga guru Baba Ramdev purportedly discussing a money transaction with Mahant Chandnath, the BJP’s Lok Sabha candidate from Alwar.
Congress leader Kapil Sibal used the video clip to allege that black money was powering the BJP election campaign.
The saffron party’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha, Ravi Shankar Prasad, hit back at the charge, saying, “When the Congress talks about black money, it appears to be the biggest joke of 2014. Has Mr. Sibal as Law Minister done anything to bring back black money stashed away abroad?”
In the clip, Mr. Chandnath is heard telling the yoga guru how difficult it was to transport money. Baba Ramdev, in return, is seen cautioning the leader against speaking further as the cameras were switched on.
With five of the nine phases of the general elections over, the Congress is now training its guns on Mr. Modi both on the issue of corruption and on his governance record. The party also pointed out that while Mr. Modi had described Gujarat as the number one State, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had said that her State had more FDI than Gujarat.
On Friday, Mr. Sibal alleged that Gujarat recorded an annual turnover of Rs. 30,000 crore from the illicit liquor trade, one of the three prime sources of black money generation in the country. Questioning the source of the “thousands of crores” the BJP is spending on its election campaign, Mr. Sibal said, “Why is Modi silent on black money? Is it because elections are on? Will he set up a fast track court to investigate the generation of black money in the State? No bootlegging can be possible without police support.” Mr. Sibal pointed out that Mr. Modi was also Gujarat’s Home Minister.
