Rahul Gandhi crossing limits of dignity by speaking in shameful fashion: Ravi Shankar Prasad

Chiding Rahul Gandhi for attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi on demonetisation yet again, Union Minister of Law and Justice Ravi Shankar Prasad on 17 December said the Congress vice president is crossing all limits of morality by speaking in such a shameless fashion.

"Rahul Gandhi is crossing limits of dignitiy. He is speaking in a shameful fashion. He is speaking a lie. For 10 years, his government remained mired by corruption. Congress' allies kept on plundering the country in 2G and coal scams, but they did not take any action against them," Prasad told ANI.

"Farmers were dying, while the nation's money was being siphoned off into foreign countries, but they did nothing to bring back the money. Today, Narendra Modi's government is working with honesty; working to bring back the money stashed in foreign countries; an SIT (Special Investigation team) has also been formed, but Rahul Gandhi is troubled, because the corrupt people, whose money is at stake, most of them have the protection of the Congress Party, and therefore, he never protested against black money openly," alleged Prasad, who is also the Union Minister for Information Technology.

He said the entire country knows what the Congress Party had done to do away with black money.

"We are saying it categorically that in the 10 years of Manmohan Singh's government, neither Congress president Sonia Gandhi nor you (Rahul Gandhi) or the government had made any effort to flush out black money and to tackle corruption. Rather corruption flourished under the protection of your government, and his claim that loans of many people were waived (by the Congress government) is a complete lie and futile," said Prasad.

Lauding the measures taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, he said, "Today, you can see strict action being taken and raids being conducted daily, which will be conducted even further. The country is with Modiji."

Addressing a gathering at Margao in Goa, Rahul Gandhi yesterday said the "demonetisation drama" is not a fight against corruption and black money, but rather "it is an attack on honest and poor people" who have worked hard to earn their money.

The Congress vice president said the government's decision to scrap Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes turned out to be a "fire bomb" that has affected the poor.

"Narendra Modi launched a new marketing scheme, saying that it was a surgical strike on corruption and black money. But this was not a surgical strike, it was a fire bombing on poor people," he said.

He said in the last two-and-a-half years, Prime Minister Modi waived off Rs 1,10,000 crore loans of the rich people and post demonetisation the Prime Minster waived off liquor baron Vijay Mallya's loan worth Rs.1200 crore. He said the Congress Party is ready to support if the government is serious about eradicating corruption in the country.

"The Congress wants to eradicate corruption from country. If the NDA government wants to take a step against it, the party will give its 100 percent support," he said.

-ANI