Reports against Rajnath Singh's son an attempt to malign BJP: Amit Shah

BJP president Amit Shah on Wednesday dismissed rumours regarding Union Home Minister's son as baseless and added that they were aimed at maligning the party.

Reports against Rajnath Singh's son an attempt to malign BJP: Amit Shah

New Delhi: BJP president Amit Shah on Wednesday dismissed rumours regarding Union Home Minister's son as baseless and added that they were aimed at maligning the party.

He also said that he was 'hurt' by the reports doing the rounds.

Backing the Home Minister he said that the senior BJP leader's political career spotless and that he strongly condemned the talks that were doing the rounds.

“Rajnath Singh's political life is an example of decency, dignity and honesty. Any allegations against him are baseless and inspired by the bad intent of tarnishing the image of the party. I condemn it strongly. I feel personally hurt due to this incident,” he said.

At the same time, the BJP chief also accused a section of the media of targeting ministers of its government for some time now by propagating unfounded and baseless reports and asked them to desist from indulging in such propaganda and base their reports on facts.

"As the national president of the party, it is my belief that the conduct of all our ministers is of high standard and their integrity beyond doubt. All such propaganda against them is baseless and misleading," he said, as per PTI.

As they prepare to mark 100 days in office, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP and the Union Home Minister were today involved in damage control amidst apparent differences at the top after embarrassing media reports that Rajnath Singh's son was ticked off by Modi for an alleged "misconduct".

Shortly after newspapers carried reports of PM's unhappiness over some alleged misdemeanour of Singh's son Pankaj and that he was warned about it, Rajnath sought to scotch the "rumours", saying he would quit politics if even "prima facie" it is proved that any of his family member had been involved in any misconduct.

An emotional Singh made a brief statement to the media saying rumours about alleged wrong doings by his family members have been floating around for the last fortnight.

"In the last 15-20 days, there have been continuous rumours in the air about me and my family. I thought rumours have no basis and these will end in some days. But I am seeing that these rumours are gaining momentum day-by-day. I want to assure the nation that the day allegations, even prima facie or even small, are proven against me or my family, I will quit politics and public life and sit at home," he said in a hurriedly called interaction with journalists outside his office in North Block, PTI reported.

The Home Minister said he has talked to Modi and Shah about it and both of them expressed surprise and termed the rumours as completely baseless.

Simultaneously, the PMO also issued a statement, rubbishing the reports and dubbing them as "plain lies, motivated and malicious attempt" to tarnish the image of the government.

This has reference to reports appearing in a section of the media over the past several weeks, mentioning the PM, and referring to the conduct of some Union Ministers, and alleged misconduct of the Home Minister's son," the PMO statement said.

"The reports are plain lies, motivated and constitute a malicious attempt at character assassination and tarnishing the image of the government," it said.

"Those indulging in such rumour-mongering are damaging the interest of the nation. These reports are strongly denied," the PMO said.

The denials came in the wake of a media report that Rajnath Singh was unhappy over rumours being spread by "a ministerial colleague" and "party rival" about his son being pulled up by the PM over some alleged misconduct.

Asked who could be floating the rumours, Singh said that was something for the investigative journalists to find out.

On the possibility of a political rival spreading these rumours, the Home Minister parried a direct reply, saying, "I have nothing to say on this."

The Home Minister denied that he has complained to the RSS about these rumours.

With PTI inputs

 

Zee News App: Read latest news of India and world, bollywood news, business updates, cricket scores, etc. Download the Zee news app now to keep up with daily breaking news and live news event coverage.