Priyanka's Rs 2-crore painting lands Cong in Yes Bank soup

At a time when it is trying to corner the ruling BJP on Yes Bank crisis, Congress has landed into an unsavoury controversy over the sale of a painting by it general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, which was given by acclaimed painter M F Hussian to former Prime Minister late Rajiv Gandhi.

Latching on to the finding that the arrested Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor had bought the painting from Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, B L Santosh, the BJP general secretary in-charge (organsisation) on Monday termed it as one three “major developments”.

“3 big developments .. 1. Delhi riots plot getting bigger by the day . Neither it was provoked nor instant . Well planned . 2. YES Bank Chief & Priyanka Vadra connections . 3. Timely intervention of system in YES Bank developments,” Santosh said tagging his tweet to Home Minister Amit Shah and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

The tweet was lapped up by BJP supporters, who went hammer and tongs Priyanka and Congress. BJP’s IT cell Amit Malviya tagged a picture of Priyanka and Kapoor in a tweet saying “Apparently Priyanka Vadra sold a painting, which she didn’t even own, to Rana Kapoor for a whopping two crore rupees... This requires some serious talent!”

This was a day after Malviya had already stirred a hornet’s nest alleging that every financial crime in India has deep link with the Gandhis.

“Mallya used to send flight upgrade tickets to Sonia Gandhi. Had access to MMS and PC. Is absconding. Rahul inaugurated Nirav Modi’s bridal jewellery collection, he defaulted. Rana bought Priyanka Vadra’s paintings,” he tweeted evoking a flurry of reactions from Congress party leaders---both at state level and the AICC.

A former Social Media head of Karnataka Congress Sreevatsa dismissed it “BJP’s fake propaganda” ruing that MF Hussain's painting given to Former PM Rajiv Gandhi was later “auctioned legally”. He said this controversy is being raised “maliciously” and being “used to divert attention” away from the BJP in the Yes Bank scam”.

Countering the attack, Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala flagged Kapoor’s “proximity to BJP leaders” as a fact well known. He also wondered how does Hussain painting of sold 10 years ago by Priyanka Gandhi to Yes Bank owner Rana Kapoor and disclosed in her tax returns connect with unprecedented giving of loans of Rs 2,00,000 crore in five years of the Modi government.

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi dismissed it as a "diversionary" tactic by the government.

While the BJP in last two days have sought to keep the focus on painting row, the Congress, which has been mounting attack on Modi government for the banking mess, has attempted to keep the spotlight on the rise in the Yes Bank loan between 2014 and 2019 asking suggesting a link between it and the government’s demonetisation decision in 2016.

Turning acerbic, Singhvi posted a tweet “Thank god #BJP and bhakts are not blaming to Nehru Ji for #YesBankScam #yesbankcrisis #economiccrisis.”

Surjewala said instead of diverting from the real issue of people's money sinking into a bad bank, the government should answer questions like how did loans given by Yes Bank rise from Rs 55,633 crore in March 2014 to Rs 2,41,499 crore in March 2019, an increase of almost Rs 2,00,000 crore in fiver years of the Modi government.

After Surjewala and Singvi on Sunday reeled out figures of Yes Bank’s loan, the campaign against the BJP government on the Yes Bank issue has been taken by the Opposition party to states, where its prominent leaders have latched on to the issue to paint Modi government’s tenure as a tenure of bank crisis.

“After the demonetisation scam by the BJP, the economy is in shambles and the hard earned money of the common is at risk. We have already seen the collapse of two banks. How many more banks will fail before BJP wakes up and smells the coffee,” said T S Singhdeo, a senior minister in Congress government in Chhattisgarh.