Advani congratulates Gadkari for stand on allegations

New Delhi  :  BJP chief Nitin Gadkari, under fire for alleged wrongdoings in business dealings, Wednesday got backing from senior party leader L.K. Advani who congratulated him for “coming clean” in asking for a probe.

In a statement, Advani termed Gadkari’s asking for a probe by the department of company affairs as a “fair and proper response” and also sought to point out that the allegations against the BJP chief were “about standards of business and not misuse of power or corruption”.

Advani was reacting a day after media reports alleged discrepancies in Gadkari’s business dealings.

Advani also hoped the government inquiry, which was announced Tuesday by Corporate Affairs Minister M. Veerappa Moily, would be “fair” and uncoloured by its “political hostility” to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Advani said the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) “is trying to work a strategy to paint the entire political class with the same brush to minimise and escape its unpardonable sins”.

He said the BJP “should be different and should not claim immunity on either scale or nature of the allegations”.

Advani said the allegation of wrongdoing in land deals against Gadkari “has been proved wrong according to media reports themselves”.

India Against Corruption (IAC) leader Arvind Kejriwal had first levelled allegations against the BJP chief last Wednesday, related to land deals in Maharashtra.

The latest allegations against Gadkari are about improper business dealings as chairman of the Purti group.

Moily had on Tuesday said the government would conduct a “discreet” probe into allegations against Gadkari.

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat said in Nagpur that the corruption allegations against Gadkari were a “matter of the party”.

Congress spokesperson Rashid Alvi said the BJP should “sort out their own affairs” instead of pointing fingers at the UPA.

In a dig at the BJP chief, Alvi said the chief of a party represents the ideology of a party.

Referring to disgraced former BJP president Bangaru Laxman who had to resign in the wake of allegations of corruption and was later convicted for bribe taking, Alvi said: “The whole party came out in his support, but he was later convicted.”