Digvijay Singh, Chidambaram question PM silence on mantris

Launching a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh and former Union finance minister P. Chidambaram on Sunday the Prime Minister’s silence over recent controversies involving Maharashtra Minister Pankaja Munde and former IPL boss Lalit Modi. Mr Singh also alleged that he was helping the former IPL chief in ED cases against him.

“Every Sunday he (Narendra Modi) talks about Mann Ki Baat, but doesn’t answer the basic questions which have emerged over the past fortnight ever since the Lalit Modi controversy came up. My charge is that Narendra Modi is helping Lalit Modi. My charge is that he has promised Lalit Modi that he will be bailed out of all the cases in which he is being investigated by Enforcement Directorate (ED),” Mr Singh told reporters here.

Stressing that Congress has raised these questions repeatedly, Mr Singh said the BJP has no answers. “Let Narendra Modi come out clean on this.”

“They (BJP) talk of morality and accountability, but when it comes to morality and accountability to be practised by the BJP, they said that what we say is absolute truth,” he said.

Congress party spokesman Raj Babbar on Saturday had demanded that Modi should step down if he was finding himself “helpless” in securing resignations of four women ministers who are under attack for alleged wrongdoing.

Hitting out at the BJP-led NDA government, Mr Chidambaram said it was time for people to question its leaders on the electoral assurances as one year has gone by since the new dispensation assumed power.

“The Prime Minister, who criticised Manmohan Singh for being silent, is silent now...,” Mr Chidambaram said while referring to the allegations against Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje and Maharashtra minister Pankaja Munde.