BJP defends party prez, attacks Cong for not probing Vadra

Speaking at a public meeting in Sundernagar, BJP leader Sushma Swaraj said, "When Congress leaders' faces were blackened, they decided to malign us also and accused our national president Nitin Gadkari. But he did not sit at home. He faced the media alone and replied to all charges made against him.

"He is the only leader to have volunteered for a probe into the allegations against him from any agency, even though these agencies are controlled by them (government)... He is confident that he will not be found guilty," she said.

In Delhi, BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman came to Gadkari's defence and hit out at the Congress on the issue of graft.

"Our party president has himself said that he is ready for a probe by any agency. He said this not only on the day the allegations were levelled but subsequently also came forward to answer the questions being raised. But the same does not seem to apply to other parties, especially the Congress," Sitharaman said.

She said it was strange that these questions were being put only to the BJP and not to Congress about Vadra or the ministers who are facing charges of financial impropriety.

Sitharaman sought to know if anybody from the Congress has come forward to say that there should be a probe in Vadra case as well as those involving ministers- a reference to the charges levelled against Law Minister Salman Khurshid, whose NGO had come under a cloud recently.

"We would like to ask the Congress why are their ministers, who have not answered the questions raised, still in the Cabinet? Are they ready to be probed?" she said. (MORE)