London: Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday stepped up his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying there is a “relationship” between him and bank fraud accused Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi. He also alleged that fugitive offender Vijay Mallya had met BJP leaders before he left the country. At an interaction with Indian Journalists’ Association here, Gandhi compared Modi with US President Donald Trump, saying people have been voting for them as they are angry because they do not have jobs.

He also said that Indian prisons were “decent places” for Mallya, whose extradition has been sought by India. He accused Modi of centralising authority and alleged that External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has been “humiliated” on every count.

Notwithstanding BJP’s attack on him, he again compared RSS with the radical Islamlist outfit Muslim Brotherhood. Gandhi spoke on a range of issues such as Doklam stand-off, bullet train, demonetisation and jobs, criticising the Modi government on each of them. “There is a relationship between Nirav Modi, Choksi and the Prime Minister. And these relationships come in the middle of justice. Indian banks gave Rs 35,000 crore loan to Nirav Modi. Narendra Modi let him run away from India,” he said.

Gandhi said the government did not act on time to arrest Nirav Modi and Choksi despite having received complaints against them. He alleged that Mallya’s meetings with BJP leaders were documented. Gandhi said Modi views foreign affairs as events. “There is no structure. The Foreign Minister spends most of her time in making VISAs, that’s not her job as a Foreign Minister. She has been humiliated on every count,” he said.

On Doklam, he said Chinese have built “huge infrastructure” in the territory but Modi during his informal visit to China had a “conversation without agenda” and did not discuss the issue. “We have serious challenges coming from the Chinese. We have to focus on that,” Gandhi said answering another query. Gandhi alleged Muslim Brotherhood and RSS use democratic processes to capture power. (IANS)