New Delhi: BJP on Tuesday sought to corner the government over alleged irregularities in land deals involving Sonia Gandhi`s son-in-law Robert Vadra, disrupting Parliament and demanding probe by a Special Investigative Team.
BJP members created storm in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha by demanding a debate on the issue, which was rejected by the government. The uproar led to repeated disruptions of both the Houses.
However, BJP did not get support from other parties, with Samajwadi Party and BSP, outside supporters of UPA, saying Sonia Gandhi could not be blamed for any alleged irregularities
by Vadra.
Left parties said all cases of corruption, whether any individual or any corporate is involved, must be probed and the guilty punished. These issues must also be discussed in the House.
Raising the issue in the Lok Sabha, Yashwant Sinha (BJP) said, "Though there are several business schools which teach models of making money, there is one highly connected person who did not go to any such school but has given a model where no investment is made but windfall gains of thousands of crores are made."
Seeing the apparent reference to Vadra, Congress members were on their feet in protest. Sanjay Nirupam walked into the Well and protested against BJP`s charge.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath and his deputy Rajiv Shukla, both seated in the front row, were on their feet. BJP members countered them from their seats.
BJP members chanted, `Congress ka haath, damaad ke saath` (hand of Congress is with the son-in-law).
This was met with counter slogans `Congress ka haath, janata ke saath, garib ke saath` (hand of Congress is with the people and the poor) by ruling party members.
In the Rajya Sabha, Rajiv Pratap Rudy (BJP) asked the Chair for his view on a Zero Hour notice to raise the Vadra issue.
"There is scam that has taken place. It has rocked the nation. It involves somebody very important," Rudy said, with his party MPs rising in support.
Soon Congress members were on their feet raising counter slogans. Sinha later told reporters outside Parliament, "We are demanding a Special Investigating Team, to probe into the land deals of Vadra, which should be monitored by the Supreme Court, so that truth would come out and guilty would be punished."
He said it should be multi-disciplinary team, because Vadra has allegedly violated many central laws including banking law, Income Tax law and company law.
"All his deals in the Congress-ruled states of Haryana, Delhi and Rajasthan should be probed," Sinha said.
Taking a dig at Finance Minister P Chidambaram, the BJP leader said, "Since Vadra has presented a unique business model before the country, my recommendations will be to the Congress party, which disturbed me and did not allow me to complete my speech in the Lok Sabha, is to open a Vadra school of management."
PTI
