NEW DELHI: With BJP dragging Sonia Gandhi's name into the AgustaWestland chopper scam, an angry Congress chief retaliated by accusing the ruling party of resorting to a "strategy of character assassination"
by directing "false and baseless" allegations against her and party colleagues. A combative Gandhi asserted that she is not "afraid" of being "cornered" on the alleged corruption into the VVIP chopper deal and asked why the BJP government has not pursued the probe in the
last two years it has been in power. "I am not afraid of anyone cornering me as there is no basis to that. All the accusations they are throwing at us are false," Gandhi told reporters at the Parliament complex. "Where are the proofs? They are lying. They are part of a strategy of character assassination which we have known these people indulge in," Gandhi said.
Rejecting BJP's charge, the Congress chief demanded that the ongoing inquiry be completed impartially and it must be completed as soon as possible so that the facts are out.
"The government is there for the last two years. What are they doing? Inquiry is there, why don't they complete it? Complete it as soon as possible, impartially," she said.
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also rebutted BJP's allegation. "There is no case. My party will respond," Singh asserted when asked about the AgustaWestland helicopter deal.
The main opposition party retaliated with renewed aggression after BJP targeted the Congress chief and other senior party functionaries on the allegations of bribes in the VVIP helicopter deal during the UPA government which is seen as an attempt to blunt the opposition's onslaught in Rajya Sabha on the Uttarakhand issue.