Why is Rahul so disturbed if integrity issues of Rajiv Gandhi govt are being questioned: Jaitley

NEW DELHI: Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday wondered why Congress president Rahul Gandhi gets disturbed when integrity issues of his late father Rajiv Gandhi-led government are raised and the 'Q' connection in the Bofors gun-deal is questioned.


In a series of tweets, Jaitley said that Rahul Gandhi thinks that "dynast" does not have to answer any question even though he can attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi - a man of utmost integrity.

Responding to comments of Modi that Rajiv Gandhi's life ended as "bhrashtachari No 1," Rahul Gandhi had tweeted: "Modi Ji, The battle is over. Your Karma awaits you. Projecting your inner beliefs about yourself onto my father won't protect you. All my love and a huge hug ..."



Jaitley in his tweet said: "Why is Rahul Gandhi so disturbed if the integrity issues of the Rajiv Gandhi government are raised? Why did

Ottavio Quattrocchi

get kickbacks in Bofors? Who was the ‘Q' connection? No reply has come."



Modi, addressing a poll rally in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday, had targeted the former Prime Minister while attacking Rahul.

"Your father (Rajiv Gandhi) was termed Mr Clean by his courtiers, but his life ended as bhrashtachari No 1," Modi had said.

Jaitley said that even former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated and yet the Congress faces heat over Emergency and the Operation Blue Star.

"The Dynast can attack the integrity of India's Prime Minister – a man of utmost honesty. Does he believe that the dynasty does not have to answer any questions?" the Minister said.



The Bofors defence deal was believed to be one of the primary reasons for the Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress's defeat in the 1989 Lok Sabha polls.


On former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh accusing the Modi government of leaving the economy in dire straits, Jaitley said, "When an economist turns into a politician, he loses sense of both economy and politics".

"Dr Manmohan Singh left behind in 2014 an economic slowdown, policy paralysis and corruption. He brought down his party to lowest ever strength in Parliament. India was a part of the fragile five. Today he regards the world's fastest growing major economy as disastrous," Jaitley said.

In an interview to PTI, Singh on Sunday said India is headed for an economic slowdown and accused the Modi government of leaving the economy in dire straits due to its "lack of economic vision".

Singh also alleged that the lack of any vision or understanding of the country's dynamics of the economy by the Narendra Modi-led government has led to "disruptive" decisions like demonetisation.

Everything PM said about Rajiv Gandhi was true: Javadekar

Hitting back at Rahul, the BJP said every single word the PM had said about Rajiv Gandhi was true and that the Congress chief was rattled due to his party's imminent defeat in the Lok Sabha polls.

At a press conference, Union minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Prakash Javadekar cited the former Prime Minister's remarks about the 1984 riots to accuse him of "supporting" the massacre of Sikhs.

He also claimed that he was surprised at the reactions of Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra over Modi's remarks.

"Everything the PM said was true. After the killings of Sikhs in the 1984 riots, didn't Rajiv Gandhi support it? He had said when a big tree fell, the earth shook. Scriptures do not say that. The scriptures say when the earth shakes, big trees fall...they turned science on its head.

"They (Congress) are playing the politics of abuses. The Gandhis are rattled and they cannot tolerate it. The people of this country know everything. After four phases of polling (in the ongoing Lok Sabha election), it is clear that the Congress is losing," he said.