Congress rejects Soros charge, calls it diversionary ploy

The Congress on Monday sought to dismiss the BJP's allegations of a nexus between the main opposition party and American investor George Soros, terming it a ploy to divert focus from the "Adani issue". The party, after the ruling side accused Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi of having links with Soros, also accused the government of "putting at stake India's ties with another country" just to save industrialist Gautam Adani.

"First, BJP quoted a Mediapart report (about Congress links with Soros), but Mediapart later said that these things are baseless and there is no conspiracy. They (government) also made allegations against the US State Department, which also said that this can adversely affect ties. But the king wants to save the parrot and provide it with 'M security'. They talked of a triangle; it is not a triangle or a square but a circle, and in the middle of that circle are Gautam Adani and Modi," said Congress spokesman Pawan Khera.

"No one has the right to stake our ties with a nation for one person. Those countries that help that industrialist, even if they enter our borders, they are given a clean chit and those countries that get a probe done on him... that are accused of being part of a conspiracy. What kind of foreign policy is this... This conspiracy began in 2002. Then it was limited to a state but since 2014 it has become an international conspiracy," he said.


Khera said the allegation of Congress-Soros links was a non-issue. "Is this an issue? If this is an issue, we can also start talking about which minister's son does what with grants from Soros but this is not an issue," he said.

The Congress spokesman said that while the opposition had been trying to raise issues in Parliament, Prime Minister Narendra Modi "gets rattled" when Adani's name is mentioned.