Modi behaving like a 'shahenshah', says Sonia

[JUGRAJ SINGH]

Prime VIP
Staff member
Robert Vadra's law firm had on Monday denied all allegations that his client owned a plush flat in London.
Sonia also rebuked PM Narendra Modi for the celebrations to mark the second anniversary of his government, saying he was behaving like a "shahenshah (monarch)" at a time when the country was facing severe drought. "Why should we have such shows," she asked.
Her aggressive defence of Vadra, during a visit to her Lok Sabha constituency, marks a shift from the party's posture towards allegations swirling around him, beginning with disclosures of controversial land deals he transacted in Haryana and Rajasthan when the two states were ruled by Congress.
Congress had responded to the revelations during the lead-up to Lok Sabha polls by distancing itself from Vadra and had maintained that he was a "private citizen" who alone should be held accountable for his actions.
BJP did not fail to spot the change of posture, and mocked Sonia for doing away with what it called the farce of differentiating Vadra from Congress. "The Congress chief's comments have exposed the farce that Vadra is merely a private person. It has established that he is the Gandhi family and Gandhi family is him," party spokesman Shrikant Sharma said.
The change of stance is significant because of indications that Vadra did not exercise, at least not always, the sort of discretion that Congress circles wish he had practised, considering his membership of the "first family".
Some in political circles saw the switch in stand through the prism of mounting indications that Priyanka Gandhi may not be able to resist the pressure to take the political plunge, as well as the fact that the I-T department's interest in Bhandari is a fallout of the probe against shell companies which allegedly routed black money to political parties by masking them as legal contributions.
Sonia taking up the cudgels for Vadra is significant also because of strong indications that the heat on Bhandari is only going to increase, with the income tax department set to launch a probe for tax evasion against the middleman who is known for his links across the influence spectrum. Besides politicians, the arms dealer is supposed to be close to bureaucrats, constitutional functionaries, senior police officers and those from the legal fraternity.

BJP aggressively reacted to Sonia's "shahenshah" jibe at the Prime Minister, with Shrikant Sharma saying it was Congress which suffered from the imperial mindset.
"Those who behaved and ruled like shahenshah were sent packing by voters in 2014. Those emperors are now on bail in National Herald case involving corruption of over Rs 5,000 crore. As for the PM he has said that he sees himself as principal servant and has been serving people like in that role," he said.
 
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