BJP fires fresh salvo at Priyanka over her sale of MF Hussain painting to Yes Bank founder

New Delhi, March 9

The BJP on Monday took a swipe at Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra over her sale of a painting to the arrested Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor as it dubbed her and her husband Robert Vadra as “Bunty and Babli” of politics, alleging they have ingenious ways of making money from assets of others.

The Congress has rejected the BJP’s charge as fake, saying there was no illegality in the transaction as the party general secretary had received the money (Rs 2 crore) in cheque and mentioned it in her income tax filings in 2010.

BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimhra Rao noted that Priyanka’s husband Robert Vadra is accused of using “shady methods to make windfall profits from dubious real estate transactions” and said the report of her receiving Rs 2 crore from Kapoor for a painting which was not her own shows that the powerful couple has leveraged their political power to make “private gains”.

“They offer deals to give patronage and protection to those involved in financial bungling and fraud. The Vadra couple can be labelled as the ‘Bunti aur Babli’ of the political class for their con operations and questionable methods,” Rao alleged.

Bunty Aur Babli was a hit Hindi movie based on the lives of two characters involved in duping people with con jobs.

“The first family of the Congress has adopted corrupt and dubious means for self aggrandizement and enrichment in every private sphere besides the unbridled corruption of the party-run governments in states and at the Centre in the past. Laundering by purported sale of paintings seems to be a mode of painting laundering,” the BJP Rajya Sabha member said.

The Congress has actively “abetted and colluded” with every financial scamster and its connection to the Yes Bank fraud is evident from “Priyanka’s undue financial gains”, he added.

The Congress has rejected the allegation as a diversionary tactic by the Modi government.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala had asked as to how does an MF Hussain painting of Rajiv Gandhi sold 10 years ago by Priyanka Gandhi to Yes Bank owner Rana Kapoor and disclosed in her tax returns connect with unprecedented giving of loans of Rs 2,00,000 crore in five years of the Modi government.

Kapoor, 62, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in Mumbai after charges of alleged financial irregularities and mismanagement in the bank’s operations surfaced and the RBI and Union government initiated action to control its affairs. — PTI