Priyanka says she will not keep quiet against ‘negative politics’

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday asked Congress president Sonia Gandhi to explain how her son-in-law, Robert Vadra, managed to amass Rs. 300 crore with an investment of just Rs. 1 lakh, even during the economic slowdown.

Calling it the “Vadra get-rich-quick model,” senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said the party had several questions on the land deals struck by Mr. Vadra in collusion with the Congress governments of Haryana and Rajasthan.

The BJP released a booklet and a short film in which it raises allegations on the land deals and takes a fleeting dig at “political dynasties” of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Samajwadi Party. The film is a dramatised version of the allegations in the booklet.

Mr. Prasad said Ms. Gandhi and her son, Rahul Gandhi, should reply to the questions as without their patronage, Mr. Vadra would not have been able to buy and sell land the way he did.

Asked why the BJP had not filed any case against Mr. Vadra in Rajasthan, now that the party is in power in the State, Mr. Prasad said: “Nothing shall be done with vendetta. This is not a witch-hunt. Inquiry is on, the law will take its own course.”

Hitting back at the BJP, Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra, daughter of Ms. Gandhi, said the party was “scrambling like rats” in the election season.

“They are scared and acting like baffled rats. I know that just a few days before elections, they will say all sorts of lies. There is nothing new in it. They can conduct any smear campaign they want. Let Narendra Modi say anything, I will not keep quiet,” Ms. Vadra said in Rae Bareli where she is campaigning for her mother.

Stressing that she would not keep quiet against “disastrous, negative and shameful politics,” Ms. Vadra said she was “not scared of them [BJP] or anyone.” She would defend her husband as she knew that during election time, the BJP “would resort to spreading lies.”

Congress spokesman Randeep Surjewala said the BJP was panicking as Ms. Vadra had been campaigning in Rae Bareli and Amethi.

“In this frustration and desperation, they [BJP] have lost their balance and have hatched a conspiracy through the BJP’s ‘dirty tricks department’ to level false, motivated, misconceived and mischievous allegations against Robert Vadra and the Gandhi family. Even this cheap political stunt by the BJP is not sufficient to save the sinking ship of Narendra Modi,” he said.