New Delhi: Senior BJP leader Sudhanshu Trivedi on Thursday claimed that the Congress and AAP, which had given clean chits to each other six months ago, were now “exposing” the other’s corruption.
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi issued a statement regarding the alleged liquor scam in Delhi, calling it “open corruption” and that AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal is corrupt, Trivedi said at a press conference.
“He (Kejriwal) is issuing certificates of honesty to himself even after that,” he added.
Trivedi said the AAP supremo, on the other hand, alleged that the Congress was involved in the National Herald case.
“Both these scams are unique in Indian politics. In the liquor scam, you have never seen a government form a policy only to later take it back. After withdrawing the policy, it (AAP government) said the policy was good and defended it in the media,” he added.
The National Herald case is important in the way a party scammed its own institute, the BJP MP alleged.
He added that the BJP had nothing to do with the two cases — the National Herald case was started in October 2013 when the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government was at the Centre while the first allegation regarding the liquor scam was also levelled by the grand old party.
It is clear how tainted the true character of the so-called staunchly honest party is, as revealed by its former partner, Trivedi said.
AAP and the Congress are constituents of the opposition INDIA bloc, formed ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. The two parties had contested the general elections in an alliance in Delhi.
Trivedi noted that Kejriwal had made venomous statements about Haryana, which had been proven politically and constitutionally incorrect.
After the Election Commission’s questioning, even Kejriwal’s apology would be insufficient, he added.
“One thing is clear in front of the people of Delhi… Both these parties lie. They were giving clean chits to each other six months ago and now (they are) exposing each other’s corruption. It means the Congress was lying on the National Herald case and AAP was lying on the liquor scam,” he claimed.
Trivedi alleged that the Centre gave Rs 8,500 crore to clean the Yamuna but, instead of cleaning the Yamuna, AAP is accused of polluting it.
The BJP’s Delhi president Virendra Sachdeva said people of the national capital had fully understood that these parties were two sides of the same corrupt coin and it wouldn’t be surprising if they embraced each other on the eve of the elections.
Sachdeva alleged that the people of Delhi knew that AAP and the Congress looted Delhi during the past 26 years.
“Therefore, I urge the citizens to now extend their support to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a double-engine government is about to come to Delhi,” he added.
Elections to the 70-member Delhi Assembly will be held on February 5 and the votes counted on February 8.