New Delhi: With the Central Information Commission (CIC) making it absolutely clear that the government has not paid for Sonia Gandhi`s treatment, the Congress Party on Wednesday accused Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi of trying to achieve cheap publicity by levelling allegations against the UPA chairperson and advised him to be confined to his state instead of making all big claims.
Congress leader BK Hari Prasad called Modi to be a biggest liar of the century.
"By taking the name of the Congress president, he tries to get the cheap publicity. This cheap mentality is not new to Narendra Modi, he is being known for this. The report of the Central Information Commission clearly says who is right and who is wrong. It`s high time Modi should confine to Gujarat instead of making all big claims," he said.
Hari Prasad pointed out that Modi has no comments to make as far as Gujarat`s development is concerned.
"Once again he has proved that already he is known for the great criminal negligence in 2002 and now he is known as a biggest liar of the century," he added.
The Central Information Commission has said that Sonia Gandhi has not sought any reimbursement for medical bills from the government.
Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra during the hearing said that the ministries concerned held no medical bills were submitted by the Congress president for reimbursement.
Mishra said that in any case the expenditure made by individual on her treatment, in India or abroad, is private information and cannot be subject matter of an RTI application.
"From the submissions made by the respondents, it was quite clear that neither any reimbursement for any such expenditure had been claimed by the individual concerned from these public authorities nor any expenditure made in this regard. In other words, till now, the government has incurred no expenditure in this regard," Mishra had held in his order dated May 03.
This case relates to an RTI application filed by one Naveen Kumar of Moradabad, who sought to know from the Prime Minister`s Office, National Advisory Council, Lok Sabha secretariat and ministries of external affairs, parliamentary affairs, statistics and programme implementation details of the medical expenditure incurred on the treatment of Gandhi.
The matter assumes importance in the backdrop of recent war of words between Narendra Modi and the Congress Party on the expenditure incurred on the treatment of Sonia Gandhi.
Modi`s allegations has refuted all the charges made by Modi.
Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari earlier in the day accused Modi of malafide intentions, and said that he was trying to deflect the attention of the masses from crucial issues.
"In law there is a term called locus. Whenever any petition is filed in any court, the first thing, which the court examines, is the locus of the petitioner and in this particular instance the locus of the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi is malafide. It is malafide because first, he does not apply the same standards to himself," said Tewari.
"When RTI queries are addressed to his office they are tossed into the dustbin and number two, he is trying to deflect attention from the real issues which are facing people of Gujarat," he added.
Narendra Modi had earlier upped the ante on the allegation that the Central Government has spent a sum of Rs 1,880 crores on Sonia Gandhi`s foreign trips.
On Monday, Modi had claimed that Rs 1,880 crores had been spent on Sonia Gandhi`s foreign trips.
"For Sonia Gandhi, 1,880 crores rupees that belong to the poor of the country; has been spent. I have this newspaper dated 12 July 2012. Here, it is written that a resident of Hisar in Haryana had filed an RTI. The Indian Government itself gave this information to him," Modi told a rally in Gujarat`s Junagadh District.
However, the RTI applicant, Ramesh Verma, denied Modi`s claims, saying the figures being linked to his petition, were incorrect.
ANI
