'Unfair to compare Modi's first year with UPA tenure'

Targeted by the Modi government over corruption cases during its tenure, the Congress on Friday said it was unfair to draw the comparison with the decade-long tenure of the UPA.

“Were there any corruption allegations in the first year of the UPA – 2004-05,” asked AICC General Secretary Digvijay Singh. He was reacting to questions on Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s claims of NDA giving corruption-free governance.The Congress leader argued that the first year performance of the Modi government should be compared with the same period of the UPA government and not with the entire decade of the UPA rule.

Singh also questioned the Rafale deal announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to France. “We would like to know whether any due diligence was shown by the Defence Ministry before the outright purchase of 36 fighter aircraft was announced,” the former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister said.

“The ‘scam and scandal, corruption and retribution’ Raj is behind us,” Jaitley had said on Wednesday in a Facebook post titled “The Fall of UPA’s Crony Capitalism – A Year of Reform”.

In a scathing critique of the UPA rule, Jaitley said “For Sale” signs hung over all ministries, spectrum was allocated at throwaway prices to the favoured a few, investors lost their investment and ministers, civil servants, investors were jailed and prosecuted. “The Congress leaders had become rent seekers and name lenders,” he saidOn Friday, the finance minister said “corruption-free governance” and “decisiveness even in the face of obstructionism” have been important hallmarks of the Narendra Modi-led NDA government.

Seeking to punch holes in Jaitley’s claims, Singh wondered whether Modi would make public the report of the Serious Fraud Investigation Office probe into the Purti Group of which Union Minister Nitin Gadkari was once a board member. The Congress leader also flagged the allocation of a mega food park in Maharashtra to a businessman with questionable past. “This is just one year in office, let them move ahead many more cases would be unravelled,” Singh said.