Congress attacks Narendra Modi, Baba Ramdev on black money issue

After releasing a three-year-old CD of Uma Bharti attacking Narendra Modi, Congress, on Friday, latched on to another video clip featuring yoga guru Ramdev to raise embarrassing questions on the BJP Prime Ministerial candidate's campaign against black money.

Taking the battle to the Modi turf of Gujarat, Union Minister Kapil Sibal alleged that Gujarat records an annual turnover of Rs 30,000 crore from illicit liquor trade, which, he alleged, was one of the three prime sources of black money generation in the country.

"Hindutva does not sell as much as liquor in Gujarat. Liquor sells more than Hindutva in Gujarat. There is no other product, which sells so fast and without any advertisement in Gujarat other than liquor. Modi knows about it and so do his colleagues," Sibal said. He asked the Gujarat Chief Minister whether he would set up a special fast-track court to "investigate the generation of black money" in Gujarat "including yourself".

Noting that land and liquor generate huge sums of black money in Gujarat, Sibal also referred to a speech of Modi in which he had said that the black money is an outcome of "black minds" and asked, "Whose Mind Mr Modi? Yours? Baba Ramdev's or Mahant Chandnath's?" Congress also raised the issue of allotment of land to industrialist Gautam Adani in Guajrat at "throwaway" prices. Quoting a weekly news magazine, Sibal said that 41,62,36,924 square feet of land was allotted to the Adani group for the Mundra port at a price ranging from Rs 1 to Rs 32 per square metre. He also alleged that Adani also sublet a large portion of the land he was given to other companies at a rate of Rs 663 per square metre. "Isn't this coruption?".

At its daily briefing at the AICC headquarters, the party also showed a video clip in which Ramdev was caught on camera purportedly discussing some money transaction with BJP's Lok Sabha candidate in Alwar, Mahant Chandnath. In the video recorded just before a press conference, Chandnath is heard telling the yoga guru about trouble that is faced while bringing money from somewhere. Ramdev is heard stopping him from speaking further as cameras are on.

"Modi and LK Advani talk big about unearthing black money. Will now BJP withdraw ticket of the party candidate from Alwar and seek action against him as well as against Ramdev. This double face is now being exposed whether it is of Modi or Ramdev. He (Modi) is attacking the Congress government but he is himself engaged in looting Gujarat ," Sibal alleged.

Replying to questions, Sibal suggested that the UPA has been unduly attacked by the media on the issue of corruption when there has not been a case against a single Congress minister in any scam, including the coal block allocation issue.