Congress tried to undermine its scams by calling Modi a thief: BJP

As a part of the saffron party's country-wide programme to reach out to people over the Agusta Westland issue, BJP's state president Dilip Ghosh held a press conference here on Monday.

Ghosh said, "Congress said chowkidar chor hai (watchman is a thief) because they tried to undermine their own scams."

The press conference was held a day after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) told a court that Christian Michel, an alleged middleman who has been deported to India, took the name of senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi in the course of the probe into the Agusta Westland case.

Michel’s extradition occurred six years after his alleged involvement in the purchase of VVIP helicopters first surfaced in 2012.

It was alleged that he had entered into a criminal conspiracy with co-accused persons, which included the then IAF chief SP Tyagi and his family members, and government officials had abused their official positions by reducing the service ceiling of the VVIPs helicopter from 6,000 metres to 4,500 metres, at the time when the Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government was in power. 

Though the Congress rubbished such allegations, Ghosh said the opposition party is "trying to suppress it by doing press conferences".

"BJP is no where in the scam. The scam took place during the UPA regime," said he, defining the saffron party's stand over the issue.

"Surprisingly, whenever a foreign person's name gets embroiled in a scam, Gandhi family gets linked," the state president added.

On Nov 19, a Dubai court upheld a lower court's order that allowed AgustaWestland deal’s alleged middleman Christian James Michel's extradition to India. The Court of Cassation upheld a lower court order which said that Michel could be extradited, dismissing appeals filed by his defence lawyers.

Besides attacking the Congress, Ghosh on Monday also took on West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee for denying credit to the Centre over several schemes.

Recently, Mamata said her government pays 100 percent of money required in various schemes, which are supposed to be jointly funded by the state and central governments.

"The Centre used to give only 20 percent and we used to give 80 percent of the total money. If we can give 80, then we will fund the rest 20 percent as well," Mamata said.

In reply, Ghosh accused the chief minister of "lying" and firmly stated that all official websites show the Centre pays 50 percent of the total money required for the respective schemes. Also he accused the state of changing the names of Centre's schemes and give credit to the West Bengal government.

However, the state president said his party will tackle Mamata's allegations politically as there is a little room to fight it out legally.