BJP president Nitin Gadkari launched an attack on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at a special press conference on Tuesday, alleging that the escalation in costs of Commonwealth Games (CWG) projects had the PMO?s seal as all files for sanction of funds were cleared by it.
The attack came on a day income-tax officers searched the premises of the BJP?s Sudhanshu Mittal, and provoked the Congress to retaliate that Gadkari was ?intimidated and afraid because a number of BJP leaders have come under the ambit of investigation and are getting caught?.
Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari described Gadkari as a ?spoilt brat? who would go to any extent to focus attention on himself. ?He might be scared that investigation may reach him also,? Tewari said. ?His press conference is a diversionary tactic. Someone must have told the BJP president that raids are going to happen.?
In a no-holds barred attack, Gadkari alleged dirty money was passed on to benami companies, relatives of ministers and organisers through Swiss bank accounts, tax havens and the ?Mauritius route?. He said he was in possession of documents to back his charges, but did not produce any before reporters.
Gadkari demanded the setting up of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to investigate the ?scam?, and said the BJP would hand over the evidence in its possession to the panel.
The crux of Gadkari?s argument was that costs of Games projects increased almost 17 times, and the Cabinet sub-committee and the PMO approved the inflated bills?amounting in the end, Gadkari said, to ?Rs 70,000 crore?.
?The advance amount released to Kalmadi was signed by the PM. Every file was approved by the PMO. Isn?t the whole Cabinet responsible for corruption? Are you not directly responsible for all this mess?? Gadkari asked, addressing himself to the PM.
As Gadkari was speaking, news broke of the I-T searches on Mittal?s premises. Gadkari reacted by disowning the party?s former national executive member and a close associate of Pramod Mahajan.
