Congress today questioned the timing and manner in which information about pages missing from government records pertaining to DLF-Robert Vadra deal were allowed to circulate in the media and described the entire episode as “politically motivated”.
Speaking at a press conference here, Congress general secretary Ajay Maken accused BJP of running a campaign targeting Vadra and raking up the controversial deal just before the elections to meet its political objective.
“Yesterday, a day before polling in Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir, there is a news item in a national daily that two pages from a file related to Robert Vadra are missing.
“The whole day, channels discuss it… And what do the papers say today after the political objective has been met and people’s minds influenced. In a national daily, page 10, there is a headline Vadra-DLF deal, lost government files found,” Maken said.
Referring to more news reports, Maken said government officials were quoted as saying that there was nothing in those pages for which someone would want them destroyed.
Attacking the BJP government in Haryana, he said, “When this report came and the whole day when channels kept discussing it, why were you silent all that time?
“Only because for political reasons you wanted that for the whole day one person’s reputation should be shredded and tarnished because he is a close relative of Congress president and vice-president,” he added.
The Congress leader said a statement by Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had also appeared in a newspaper saying that the government is in possession of a separate copy of the file with all documents in it. “Then why did you not deny the reports earlier?” he asked.
Asserting that Congress believed that Vadra was nowhere on the wrong side of the law, Maken said, “If you look at the pattern being followed for more than one year, this issue is always raised before elections but without any new facts coming to the fore.”
Maken, who is also the party’s communications in-charge, said baseless allegations have been made against Vadra, who he said was also made subject to a media trial of sorts.
“From the time of Rajasthan Assembly polls, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders have been continuously levelling allegations against the son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi over land deals.
“An atmosphere was created that if the BJP comes to power in Rajasthan, all these so-called wrong doings would be acted upon,” he said.
Maken said it has been two months since BJP came to power in Haryana but they have not brought forth a single fact which was not their in public domain before.
“We believe that nowhere is Robert Vadra on the wrong side of the law and this misinformation is being spread only because of political reasons,” he said.
Claiming that an impression had been created through the media that investigations were not gaining pace when Congress was in power at the Centre, Maken said media should be careful about being “misused” for political interests.
“Media should understand (from) the kind of timing. The way a misinformation campaign has been going for a year and baseless allegations levelled… if it is being used as a proxy to launch attacks,” Maken said.
When asked why Congress was speaking on the matter pertaining to Vadra who it has often maintained is an individual, Maken said, “When issue has been raised by the chief campaigner of the BJP in a political rally, it has to be rebutted in a political manner.”
Asked if the party was contemplating filing a defamation case, Maken said it is a political battle and generally political allegations were responded in the the same realm.
“But we have kept all doors open,” he added.