Introducing the Kanpur-Kannauj tax raid , in which ₹194.45 crore cash, 23 kg of gold and raw material worth ₹6 crore were recovered, into his Uttar Pradesh election campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday targeted the Samajwadi Party (SP) , saying the “perfume of corruption sprayed across U.P. before 2017” by them had surfaced again in front of everyone.
“But now they have locks on their mouths…not coming to take credit,” he said taunting SP president Akhilesh Yadav who, has on several occasions, said the Yogi Adityanath government was claiming credit for projects and schemes launched during his tenure from 2012-2017.
Speaking in Kanpur after launching a nine-km stretch of the Kanpur Metro, Mr. Modi linked the Opposition to accused businessman Piyush Jain, whose business and residential premises in Kanpur and Kannauj, known across the country for its ittar (perfume) industry, were raided by officials of the Directorate General of GST Intelligence. Mr. Jain was subsequently arrested on allegations on tax evasion.
‘Mountain of notes’
“The entire country saw the mountain of notes, this is their [SP’s] achievement. This is their reality,” Mr. Modi said.
The Prime Minister, hinting at the Opposition parties, said they had been claiming credit for the work done by Mr. Adityanath. However, he wondered, if the Opposition would also jump to take credit for the “boxes full of notes” recovered in the raid.
Mr. Modi's use of phrase “perfume of corruption” could also be seen as an attack on the SP, whose MLC Pushpraj Jain, who incidetanlly lives in the same locality as Mr. Piyush Jain in Kannauj, had recently launched a perfume of socialism, made of 22 different fragrances.
Mr. Modi’s reference to the tax raid comes after the BJP, through Mr. Adityanath, had already made it part of the poll campaign for the 2017 election. Through this, the BJP has also attempted to bring back the issue of demonetisation into political discourse five years after it dominated the previous Assembly polls. The BJP had linked the perfume businessman as well as the unaccounted money to the SP, which has strongly denied the connection. The SP said Mr. Jain was actually linked to the BJP and accused it of misleading people.
Published - December 28, 2021 04:18 pm IST
