CWC is 'Corruption Wali Committee': BJP

The BJP today described the Congress Working Committee (CWC) as "corruption wali committee" (committee of corruption) hours after it resolved to take on the government on the issue of graft.

"The Congress has hard connection with corruption. Wherever corruption happens in India, it goes to 10 Janpath. 10 Janpath is the permanent address of corruption in India and every act of corruption leads to the Gandhi family," he said.

10 Janpath is the official residence of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

The ruling party also dismissed allegation about irregularities committed by the Modi government in fixing prices of the Rafale fighter jets, saying the Congress is spreading untruth on the issue as it is "frustrated" over the absence of any middlemen in the deal.  "He (Rahul Gandhi) told Parliament that French president said something in his ears. Within hours the French government issued a statement exposing his lies. Can there be anything more humiliating than this. He was criticised the world over and it happened for the first time that another country had to intervene...and issue a letter. But Rahul is carrying on with his lies," Patra said.

He said the government took a decision on Rafale jets at a time when the squadron strength was vastly depleted and the Congress did nothing between 2002 and 2012 to address this issue.

Patra also accused the Congress of playing vote bank politics on the controversy surrounding Assam's National Register of Citizens (NRC) and said that the party was only interested in having a "national register of illegal immigrants".

Seeking to expose the party's hypocrisy on the issue, he said that while the party did not allow BJP president and Rajya Sabha MP Amit Shah from speaking on the issue in the Upper House, they were deliberating upon it in the CWC meeting.

"Is CWC more important than Parliament," he wondered.

Taking a dig at the CWC members over allegations of corruption they face, he said it is "corruption wali committee".

Countering the Congress claim of the Modi government's complicity and connivance in allowing bank scan accused Mehul Choksi to flee from the country and getting him citizenship of Antigua, Patra pointed to an interview given by Mehul Choksi's Antiguan lawyer David Dorsett where he had reportedly said that Choksi was being targeted as he had a "loose" connection with the Congress.