Congress, AAP's attempts to "malign" Arun Jaitley will boomerang: Venkaiah Naidu

NEW DELHI: Alleging that both Congress and AAP are attempting to "malign" the reputation of Finance Minister Arun Jaitely over the DDCA issue, Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu today said such attempts will boomerang as had happened in the past.

"Congress and the new-found ally AAP are determined to attempt to malign the reputation of the Finance Minister without any basis... They (Congress) have tried to make such baseless allegations against different ministers at different times. But like on other occasions, this will also boomerang on them," Naidu, Parliamentary Affairs Minister, said here.

It is now known to everybody that the "so-called charges' pertaining to DDCA was investigated during Congress rule and the then UPA government had found "no fraud" and only mentioned some technical and procedural irregularities, he said.

He said that "even The Serious Fruad Investigation Office (SFIO) has given a clean chit to Jaitley by name, "saying there was nothing against him. Now, for cheap political reasons and in order to defame this government, they are making false and baseless allegations."

Naidu said that Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi has no "moral right" to criticizse BJP or question Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is known for zero tolerance against corruption, on the DDCA issue.

"The Congress regime was neck-deep in corruption and many of its former union ministers and chief ministers had either faced or are facing serious corruption charges...it has blatantly joined hands with a party whose leader has been convicted in corruption case," he alleged.

Naidu also said that Congress owes an explanation why it stalled the Rajya Sabha for a full session and why it has been obstructing the GST and Real Estate bills which are linked with the country's economic growth.

"So far, Congress has not given any explanation for their immature, irrational and irresponsible behaviour of stalling the Parliament," Naidu said.