Amit Shah must step down to allow fair probe into son’s business dealings: Congress

By: Express Web Desk | New Delhi | Updated: October 9, 2017 1:43 pm

Stepping up its criticism over allegations of impropriety against Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah, Congress on Monday demanded the BJP national president step down from his position to ensure a fair probe.

During a press conference at the AICC headquarters in Delhi, party spokesperson Anand Sharma questioned Union Railways Minister Piyush Goyal why he is defending Jay Shah. Sharma asked Goyal whether he is a minister or a spokesperson for Jay Shah.

Sharma went on to question Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s silence on the allegations. The Congress spokesperson added that former BJP leaders have also resigned over corruption allegations in the past. “Congress reminds BJP that its presidents L K Advani and Bangaru Laxman had stepped down in the past when allegations surfaced,” Sharma said.

Earlier Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, who was in the past criticised as “shahzada” by the PM, questioned Narendra Modi’s silence over the allegations against Jay Shah. In a tweet, Gandhi wrote, “Modiji, Jay Shah-‘jada’ kha gya. Aap chowkidaar the ya bhaagidaar? Kuch to boliye”.

In a press release, the Congress questioned Modi’s statement of “Na khaunga, na khaane dunga (Will not take bribe, will not let anyone take bribe), and demanded answers into the matter.

A report published in online news portal The Wire, on Sunday, about the business dealings of Jay Shah said that a company owned by him, Temple Enterprise Private Ltd, grew from Rs 50,000 in March 2015 to Rs 80.5 crore in 2015-16, a year in which it got access to an unsecured loan of Rs 15.78 crore from financial services firm KIFS. In his response, Jay Shah’s lawyer has threatened to sue the author of the report and editors and owners of the website on charges of criminal defamation.

The report created a political storm on Sunday with Rahul Gandhi, in a tweet, saying that the only beneficiary of demonetisation was Amit Shah. “We finally found the only beneficiary of Demonetisation. It’s not the RBI, the poor or the farmers. It’s the Shah-in-Shah of Demo. Jai Amit,” Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi tweeted. The CPI(M), AAP, Samajwadi Party and RJD also attacked BJP, Amit Shah and Modi after the allegations surfaced.

Source: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/l-k-advani-bangaru-laxman-stepped-down-when-corruption-allegations-surfaced-in-the-past-congress-4881702/