New Delhi, February 21
The Congress today took the BJP to task for encouraging criminalisation of politics which, it said, was evident from the induction of history-sheeter
D.P. Yadav into its ranks.
Congress spokesperson Kapil Sibal said there were 30 criminal cases pending against Mr Yadav both in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi which include murder, attempt to murder, hooliganism and kidnapping.
To make matters worse, Mr Sibal said, the BJP was actually justifying Mr Yadav’s entry into their party on the ground he had not been convicted in any of the cases. He said the BJP president had gone as far as to state that Mr Yadav’s entry would strengthen the party while Deputy Prime Minister
L.K. Advani had been quoted as saying that there was no space for ideology in their politics.
The Congress spokesperson said the BJP had all along described itself as a “party with a difference” but it should openly declare that it had abandoned all principles and was willing to do anything to gain power.
Referring to adverse comments made recently by CAG on the disinvestment of Centaur Hotel, the Congress demanded that all hotels disinvested by the NDA government be probed either by the CBI or any other high-level independent body, to find out the real beneficiaries in these cases.
Clarifying the Congress stand on disinvestment, Mr Sibal said their party was not against disinvestment but did not favour disinvestment of profit-making units. The NDA, he maintained, had no proper disinvestment policy while the whole exercise was cloaked in secrecy. The Congress, according to Mr Sibal, believes there should be greater transparency in the whole process and that the money raised from disinvestment be used for capital expenditure and not for bridging the fiscal deficit.
