Battlelines have been drawn for another day of standoff in Parliament over the alleged AgustaWestland VVIP helicopters scam. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kirit Somaiya has alleged that Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi's close aide Kanishka Singh has links with the AgustaWestland middleman Guido Haschke.
He also claimed that Rahul, too, has links to a real estate developer allegedly involved in the Commonwealth Games scam. Somaiya is set to bring up the issue in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
The BJP MP has written to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) seeking a probe into Singh’s alleged links with Haschke.
But Kanishka rejected the allegations calling it entirely baseless, false and made with an ulterior political motive. Randeep Singh Surjewala, communications in-charge, AICC, also termed Somaiya’s statements against Singh as "completely preposterous and baseless allegations" and a "completely false attempt" to find a link between AgustaWestland and Haschke, who is also alleged to be a middleman for Emaar-MGF which is linked to the CWG scam.
He said the "vitriolic of BJP government and its multiple leaders to propagate conspiratorial falsehood everyday appears to have reached an extreme".
"According to Kanishka Singh, neither he nor any member of his family ever had any stake or shareholding in Emaar-MGF in the past nor have any such stake or shareholding in Emaar-MGF currently, and have no connection, familiarity or relationship with either Mr Hashke or anyone else connected to him", Surjewala said.
“The Modi government is in power for the last two years and instead of relying upon friendly media leaks, insinuations, innuendoes and falsehood, should conclude an inquiry and give harshest punishment to those found guilty of any allegation of bribery in Augusta Westland case," he added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired BJP parliamentary party meeting ahead on Tuesday. Several top leaders including party president Amit Shah were present at the meeting where they fine-tuned the strategy for Parliament.
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