Congress president Rahul Gandhi Tuesday attempted to cover up his earlier goof up where he said that Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s son was named in the Panama papers scandal. Speaking in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh’s Indore, Gandhi suggested that it was not his fault as the huge amount of corruption in the Bharatiya Janata Party can confuse anyone. “BJP mein itna brashtachaar hai ki main kal confuse ho gaya tha. Madhya Pradesh ke CM ne Panama nahi kiya unhone to e tendering aur vyapam scam kiye hain,” Gandhi was quoted as saying by news agency ANI. (The amount of corruption in BJP confused me yesterday. MP CM didn’t do Panama, he did e-tendering and Vyampam scam)
Earlier on Monday, Gandhi said in Jhabua that Chouhan’s son has been named in the Panama papers scandal and the authorities didn’t act. “Name of the son of CM Shivraj Singh Chauhan surfaced in the Panama papers, but no action was taken,” Gandhi had said. “Even a country like Pakistan punished its former PM when he was named in the Panama papers,” he had said.
Reacting to Gandhi’s statement, Chouhan threatened to file a defamation suit against the Congress chief. “You have been making patently false allegations of Vyapam to Panama Papers against me and my family. Tomorrow, I am filing a criminal defamation suit for maximum damages against you for frivolous and malafide statements,” Chouhan wrote on Twitter.