The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party yesterday rejected demands for an investigation into the alleged extraordinary increase in the turnover of a company owned by party president Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah after it came to power, describing them as “baseless”.
“All these allegations are baseless and there is no truth in them,” Home Minister Rajnath Singh said.
“Earlier also there were a number of charges made against him (Amit Shah). No probe is required in the issue,” Singh told reporters here after inaugurating the National Investigation Agency headquarters.
Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad also dubbed the charges as baseless.
Jay Shah had done nothing wrong in his business, Prasad told reporters in Kochi.
“What’s happening now is that a conspiracy has been hatched and allegations of corruption against Jay Shah have been made. Already he has filed a defamation suit to the tune of Rs100 crores.”
Prasad said Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi had no moral right to make these allegations “because he himself is on bail in a corruption case. He also should not forget that there are cases of corruption against his brother-in-law (Robert Vadra)”.
However, continued to attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of remaining silent on the controversy.
There has been an amazing transition from ‘beti bachao, beti padhao’ (save daughter, educate daughter) to ‘beta bachao’ (save the son), he said in Vadodara in Gujarat.
The Congress leader referred to a news portal report on the 16,000-fold increase in the turnover of the company owned by Jay Shah before the firm was shut ahead of the November 8 demonetisation last year.
“Modi ji announced ‘Make in India’ and ‘Startup India’ in 2014. I do not know what came in the mind of Shah ji and how it came. It was a big innovative idea and he did his work. In three-four months, the (turnover of) Rs50,000 became Rs80 crore. He got unsecured loan. And a very interesting thing happened. This highly successful company was closed by (Jay) Shah ji in 2016. How the chowkidar (gatekeeper) of India is quiet. He is not speaking a word,” Gandhi said.
“Is he (Modi) a ‘chowkidar’ (watchman) or ‘bhagidar’ (participant)?” Gandhi said at a meeting.
The Communist Party of India demanded a high-level probe into the allegations.
“We are hearing about the company of Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah, whose turnover increased from Rs50,000 to Rs80 crore in a year. Why don’t they inquire into it? Why is the party and the central government supporting his claims of being clean?” CPI general secretary S Sudhakar Reddy said in Kolkata.
“Corruption in the BJP is increasing. They say no one can accuse their party of corruption but we have been saying regularly that this a corrupt government.
“There has been Vijay Mallya case, Lalit Modi case and the alleged involvement of Rajasthan Chief minister Vasundhara Raje and their leader Sushma Swaraj in corruption. There are no inquiries against these cases,” he alleged.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal party of Lalu Prasad Yadav dared Modi to order an investigation.
“It is a time of test for Modi whether he will order a probe or not into transactions made by the firm owned by Jay Shah,” RJD leader Shivanand Tiwari said in Patna.
Tiwari, considered close to the RJD chief, said: “Where is Modi, who had said ‘na khaaoonga, na khane dunga’? The entire country is watching him whether he will order an investigation or not. The rise of Amit Shah’s son’s company is like a miracle,” he said.