Mumbai: Union Minister for Railways and Commerce & Industry Piyush Goyal on Thursday defended the recent Enforcement Directorate action on Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders, stating the party’s tales of corruption were “legendary”.
“Everyone in Maharashtra knows that anything that NCP leaders have touched has been mired in corruption scams. In irrigation, we know how Ajit Pawar had a major corruption scam. Despite spending ₹70,000 crore, not one hectare of land got water. This is NCP’s track record,” he said.
He stated that there was no question of vendetta politics or pressure tactics as the government did not interfere with the investigative process. “People have been hearing NCP’s tales of corruption for decades. If they are coming out now, then it is in Maharashtra’s interest. It is in the best interest of the State and the country that there is no politics about this, and investigative agencies and the courts do their jobs,” he said.
Mr Goyal drew a parallel to the current Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank crisis, stating that had they been a government that interfered with the investigative process, they would have tried to bury the issue. “When the news broke out a few days before the elections, the investigations started. We did not try to hide it. Maybe there may have been some political gain to have buried it for 15 days until the elections were over, but this is a government that never interfered in such things. The people should know the truth and there should be strict action. Today, several accused are in jail, they are being questioned, properties worth thousands of crore have been seized,” he said.
He also defended all the leaders that have defected from the NCP and the Congress to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the run-up to the elections, claiming that none of them had been chargesheeted in the past. “We have carefully assessed their past. Today, all of Congress and NCP is willing to come into our party but only those who have done some good have been inducted,” he said.
Mr Goyal said that the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance will win 220 seats out of 288 in the Maharashtra, which goes to the polls on October 21 and that all 36 seats of Mumbai and its adjoining regions will be won by the BJP and Shiv Sena. “Nearly ₹75,000 crore has been invested only in Mumbai. No previous government has put in the amount of investment that this government has for Mumbai’s infrastructure. The people will see this and vote back our government,” he said.
