Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Saturday mounted a blistering attack on the BJP on the issue of corruption and said that the party that claimed to fight corruption was now courting the man who is, undoubtedly, the most corrupt.
“Senior BJP leader L.K. Advani took out a yatra against corruption but his party is now flaunting Babu Singh Kushwaha, who can be said to be among the most corrupt persons in UP,” he said while addressing a rally in Gorakhpur on Saturday. He said that corruption in BJP-ruled states like Uttarakhand and Karnataka was already a well-known fact.
The Congress leader said that Kushwaha had first approached the Congress but we denied him entry because we wanted that people like him should be severely punished. But the BJP, he said, lost no time in welcoming Kushwaha into their fold.
Mr Gandhi said that it was the Youth Congress activists who had exposed the NRHM scam through RTI. “If people are dying due to encephalitis today, it is because people like Kushwaha have eaten up the money sent in the health sector in UP,” he said.
He further said that the Centre sends thousands of crores of rupees to all states but in UP the money never reaches the people. “It is your money but Mayawati’s magic elephant in Lucknow eats it all up. Kushwaha used to feed the elephant and now another minister is feeding the elephant,” he said.
Mr Gandhi said that “first the BJP sold Ram to get power and now Kushwaha has bought the BJP.”
“For the past 22 years, you have relied on these parties. The BJP sold Ram and you voted for it. Then Mulayam Singh sought votes in the name of caste but he gave you criminals who ran police stations. Then Mayawati took your votes and what did you get in return — lathi, danda aur Kushwaha,” he said.
Mr Gandhi’s direct and scathing attack on the BJP — first after Babu Singh Kushwaha joined the BJP — was apparently designed to display the zero tolerance of the Congress towards corruption. He repeatedly used Kushwaha’s name to symbolise corruption in the BSP government and then linked it to BJP.
In all his meetings till date, Mr Gandhi has highlighted the corruption in UP through misuse of Central funds and has blamed the BSP government for the same but after the induction of Kushwaha into BJP, he has now linked the corruption issue with the BJP also.