A beleaguered UPA-II came in for heavy shelling from the BJP on Bofors issue with party president Nitin Gadkari directly implicating the Gandhi family for its links with Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, and holding it responsible for giving the country the “most corrupt Government ever.”
Shri Gadkari was addressing a huge audience at the launch of Srinagar-bound Rashtriya Ekta Yatra or the national unity march from Kolkata. Launching an attack on Congress president Sonia Gandhi for “concealing” facts on the Bofors and presiding over a coalition which had stoked the biggest scams, the BJP president quoting CBI reports said that irrespective of Sonia’s repeated denials, Quattrocchi’s driver had confessed having seen the Italian businessman visiting late Rajiv Gandhi’s bungalow 27 times. “Gandhi should come clean on these reports,” he demanded.
“Quattrocchi had a direct entry to Rajiv Gandhi’s bungalow,” he said, adding that the Congress had “plundered Rs 2.5 lakh crore in 2G and CWG scams, which is three per cent of the country’s GDP.” Notwithstanding the Congress’ garibi hatao slogan the poor had become poorer and the rich richer. “Fifty per cent population of our country earns less than Rs 20 a day while 90 per cent earn $2 a day. Inflation is as high as 18 per cent but the Congress is busy looting” he said.
“This Yatra is against the backdrop of the threats issued by Abdullah and Malik who dared us to hoist the Tricolour at Lal Chowk,” Chandan Mitra said wondering whether one needed permission to hoist the Tricolour within India. “Regardless of their challenge we will hoist the flag come what may,” he said adding the Kashmir Chief Minister was following in the footsteps of his grandfather Sheikh Abdullah “in whose prison Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee had mysteriously died” after he challenged the theory of two rulers and two flags.
Shri Mitra held Nehru-Abdullah conspiracy for the current situation of Kashmir. “As though the Pakistan and Chinese occupation of parts of Kashmir is not enough, Sonia Gandhi and the Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh) are pursuing the same policy of appeasement to push Kashmir further into Pak hands,” he said describing the relevance of Rashtriya Ekta Yatra. Among others who spoke on the occasion were BJP leaders Ananth Kumar, Smriti Irani and party’s Bengal president Rahul Sinha.
