Rahul, Sonia flew free in Vijay Mallya’s airline in exchange for bank loans: BJP

The war of words between the Congress and BJP over Vijay Mallya ’s alleged meeting with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley does not seem to end anytime soon. Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday lashed out at Congress party and accused them of raising and protecting the business tycoon. BJP also alleged that Congress President Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi had flown free of cost in Mallya’s airline in exchange for bank loans provided to him.

In order to defend Arun Jaitley’s alleged meeting with Mallya, the BJP’s media head Anil Baluni posed eight questions. He claimed that these eight questions highlight the alleged help provided to Vijay Mallya by UPA government.

“Why Rahul Gandhi does not answer these questions? Why his lips are sealed when faced with these burning questions. What can be a bigger evidence of corruption than the fact that it was the Congress government which raised and protected Mallya,” he said.

He went ahead and attacked Rahul Gandhi and called he is suffering from “ideological bankruptcy and does not know what he says, does and understands”.

He cites then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s reported comments in 2011 that Kingfisher Airlines, now defunct, needed to be helped and asked if it was not true that the then finance minister P Chidambaram ignored rules to provide relief to the loss-making airline.

He also asked, “Is it not true that in exchange for providing (bank) loans to Mallya the then UPA chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi and current Congress president Rahul Gandhi travelled free of cost in the airline’s business class.”

Meanwhile, the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley refuted all the allegations and said, he had never given Mallya an appointment. Mallya misused his privilege as a Member of Parliament to accost him in Parliament. Whereas, Congress president Rahul Gandhi accused Jaitley of colluding with a criminal and sought his resignation. 

Congress leader PL Punia claimed to have seen Jaitley speaking to Mallya in Parliament’s Central Hall on March 1, the day before he left the country. While BJP’s IT cell called it a lie and said Punia is saying under Rahul Gandhi’s instruction. 

BJP said, Mr Jaitley was busy in scores of events on that day as he had presented the Union Budget a day earlier and it was unlikely that such a meeting would have happened.

Also read: The great escape of Vijay Mallya and CBI goof-ups