BJP slammed for inaction against BSY, Reddy brothers

Cong conclave: Party has zero tolerance for graft, says Sonia

Congress president Sonia Gandhi led the party’s offensive against the BJP, particularly focusing on the latter’s alleged inaction on rampant corruption in Karnataka. She claimed that the Congress had demonstrated its policy of zero-tolerance to corruption and misconduct through actions.

“Even when no charge has been established, we have asked ministers and chief ministers to step down, pending enquiry,” she said. “How many other parties can make such a claim? Can the BJP do so in regard to Karnataka where corruption is rampant or the Left in the states ruled by it?”

Action vs inaction

The Congress president was obviously taking a dig at the BJP for allowing Yeddyurappa to continue as chief minister even after he got embroiled in the alleged land scam in Karnataka. She sought to juxtapose BJP’s “inactions” with the Congress’s actions against its ministers, Shashi Tharoor, Suresh Kalmadi and Ashok Chavan.

Tharoor had to step down as minister of state for external affairs in the wake of the Kochi Indian Premier League controversy in April. Kalmadi had to quit the post of secretary of the Congress Parliamentary Party for the mess in the preparation of the Commonwealth Games in Delhi. Chavan had to resign as chief minister of Maharashtra in November for his alleged role in the Adarsh Housing Society scam in Mumbai.

In the wake of the 2G spectrum allocation scam, the Congress top brass also put pressure on its ally DMK and made A Raja resign as the telecom minister.  The Congress is holding the plenary session at a time when the party and the coalition government it leads at the Centre have come under attack from its principal adversary BJP for a series of scams.

“The BJP has a history of double standards and double speak on issues of serious corruption involving senior most leadership and occupants of highest offices including those of chief ministers and ministers,” the Congress said in its political resolution adopted in the plenary. “In shamelessly putting up a defence of corruption in the BJP-governed states and stubbornly protecting the chief minister of Karnataka and others accused of plundering national resources, the BJP has demonstrated its moral bankruptcy and political hypocrisy,” it added.

Taking part in the discussion on the resolution, Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh, too, lambasted the BJP for turning a blind eye to what he termed as large-scale corruption in Karnataka. He said Yeddyurappa misused his power as chief minister and de-notified a number of prime plots for the benefit of his sons and daughters and those were later sold off at a very high price.

He also referred to alleged involvement of the Reddy brothers of Bellary in the mining scam. He wondered why the BJP heavyweight and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj was keeping mum on the alleged illegal mining in Bellary.

The Congress also slammed the BJP’s “Operation Lotus” in Karnataka. “It is unfortunate that the main Opposition party in our country today has given an open call to MLAs belonging to other parties to cross the floor and various methods have been adopted to defeat the very purpose of the anti-defection Tenth Schedule of the Constitution.”