Shah dares Rahul to make quota formula for Patidars public

BJP President Amit Shah on Tuesday dared Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi to make public the quota formula that the opposition party has sealed with the Patidar Andolan Anamat Samiti (PAAS) to give reservations to the Patidar community.

"If possible they (Congress) should public it. He (Rahul) is coming here tomorrow. Let him make the formula public," Shah said at the India TV conclave here.

"They should come with a draft and let there be a debate among constitutional experts like Harish Salve and Soli Sorabjee and not between (Congress') Kapil Sibal or (BJP's) Ravi Shankar Prasad. If they don't make it public, the people of Gujarat will feel cheated," he added.

Shah said that his Bharatiya Janata Party will never resort to false promises. "We do not make false promises to win elections," he said.

The BJP chief said that the firing on Patidar protesters resulting in deaths was sad and unfortunate and a judicial probe headed by a retired High Court judge has been ordered.

"Those responsible will be punished. No one will be spared," he said.

Hitting out at Congress, Shah said that the party surrendered before three young leaders shows it bankruptcy and also lack of its leadership.

"They were bound to outsource leaders. In business ,you can benefit by outsourcing but you cannot get benefit in politics by outsourcing leaders. This is the status of their bankruptcy. They don't have even a chief ministerial face. The people of Gujarat wants to know about the Chief Minister who can take the state forward.," he said.

Claiming that BJP will get 150-plus seats in Gujarat assembly polls, Shah came down heavily on Rahul Gandhi for his charge that because of the Nano car project, there was a loss of Rs 33,000 crore to the state exchequer.

"He should know that Nano is only a brand, and the company belongs to Tatas. They can manufacture other vehicles in the factory. I don't know who advised Rahul to raise this issue," he said.

Shah ridiculed Gandhi's charge that BJP government in the state was favouring five or six industrialists.

"In 2007 elections too, they alleged we were helping five industrialists and five crore people of Gujarat replied. In 2012 election, they again alleged five industrialists were being favoured and 5.5 crore people replied through ballot. This time they have again said five industrialists are being favoured and 6.5 crore people of Gujarat will reply."

He also rejected allegations that bad loans of industrialists have been written off.

"Narendra Modi government has not written off a single rupee of bad loan for any industrialist," he said.

The BJP president said that Prime Minister Modi was personally looking into all problems being faced by traders on the GST issue.

"In three to four months, GST will emerge as a model consumer law replacing 18 different laws, and inspector raj will end," he added.

--IANS

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