Congress hits back at PM, says proud of ‘family’

A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi slammed “one family” for disrupting Parliament to avenge its defeat in the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress said that the Gandhi family is an “integral” part of the party and he should refrain from provoking and insulting the principal Opposition.

Senior All-India Congress Committee spokesman Anand Sharma said, “Modi should know the contribution of the Gandhi family before and after the Independence.”

Former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot said the BJP cannot separate the Congress and its leadership and “if you try to do so, we will be giving a befitting reply to the best of our ability and they must never be in doubt about that”.

“Right from the Lok Sabha election campaign, Modi has been feeling panicky and is scared of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi,” Mr Gehlot said.

“It is a funny way of seeking cooperation by attacking the leadership of the Congress. We want to tell the PM one thing categorically that when he talks of our leadership or the family, we are proud of that and they are integral to the Congress,” Mr Sharma told reporters here.

Meanwhile, keeping up the pressure over the Gujarat land row, the Congress demanded setting up of a Supreme Court-monitored SIT to go into “all allotments of government land during the tenure of Narendra Modi as state chief minister” to the business partners of Anar Jayesh Patel, daughter then state revenue minister Anandiben Patel.

“The special investigative team monitored by the Supreme Court should cover all the allotments and grants of public land when Anandiben was revenue minister and Modi was chief minister,” Mr Sharma said.

He alleged that there was “plunder” of public land and forest land during Mr Modi’s tenure as CM as they were given for a “pittance” to “corporate cronies” and others without following due procedure.

Asking Mr Modi to “come clean” on the issue, Sharma sought to know from him whether he was aware of “clear conflict of interest” of Anandiben Patel while allocating government land near Gir Lion Sanctuary to the company which allegedly has close business links with Anar Jayesh.

“Was this allocation based on a Cabinet decision and endorsed by (then) CM (Modi) and whether conflict of interest, if any, was disclosed ” asked Mr Sharma.

“Mr Prime Minister, we ask you to offer yourself for a fair probe so that accountability can be fixed. No government agency of the Central government or state government can be trusted to conduct a probe about this matter when the principal player happens to be a CM and the former CM who is now the Prime Minister,” he said .