JOIN US"Swaraj's assertions once again underscore the fundamental reality of BJP that money talks and Yeddyurappa and Reddy walk. While Karnataka burns with corruption, the Neros of BJP fiddle in Delhi.
"It does not require any imagination to find out from where the fiddle came. It definitely came from Bangalore," Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari told reporters here.
He was replying to questions surrounding the controversy in BJP over Swaraj's remarks.
Swaraj had alleged that the decision to give cabinet berths to Janardhan and Karunakar Reddy was taken by Arun Jaitley (in his capacity as Karnataka party in-charge), and senior leaders M Venkaiah Naidu and Ananth Kumar.
She maintained that she had not acted as the protector of the Reddy brothers and had "no role in the political making" of the mining barons. She emphasised that she was opposed to three members of a family finding berths in the cabinet. The third Reddy brother Somashekhar has a ministerial status.
In a damage control exercise, former BJP chief Rajnath Singh said all decisions vis-a-vis Karnataka had his consent and dismissed as "baseless" reports of a rift between Swaraj and Jaitley.
However, the Congress spokesperson dismissed the defence saying, "The question is not who opposed Yeddyurappa and Reddy. The question is why at all they were appointed."
Tewari said, "BJP must answer to the nation as to why the infrastructure of corruption has been institutionalised in Karnataka amd why does the party dance to the tune of Yeddyurappa and Reddy?"
He also took a dig at senior BJP leader L K Advani when asked whether the political compulsions of BJP in appointing Bellary brothers were related to the Opposition party's bid to come to power at the Centre.
"There was a prime minister-in-waiting in BJP, who is continuing in the waiting list since 2004 and the waiting list may get longer by 2014. BJP is not understanding a simple fact that the train of power is now not going to halt at its station," he said.
Taking potshots at the main opposition party for its "poor show" in the recently concluded Assembly elections, he said, "A party, which gets only five seats out of 765 it contested, should think whether it is really the opposition party or only a symbolic opposition, and whether it is truly a national party or merely a regional one."