Author: Anand Mishra
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: December 17, 2016
URL:   http://indianexpress.com/article/india/session-over-speak-up-in-public-opposition-parties-to-rahul-gandhi-4431337/

BSP chief Mayawati said that Rahul should hold a press conference and reveal the facts if he has evidence against Modi.

AS THE Winter Session of Parliament wound up on Friday, some parties within the Opposition, which had till date put up a united front on the demonetisation issue, asked Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi to make public his assertion that he has evidence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “personal corruption”. Rahul’s decision to lead only a Congress delegation on Friday to meet Modi on farmers’ woes as a result of the prevailing cash crunch, it seems, has not gone down well, with some Opposition leaders asking why they were not consulted.

The development comes on a day the Left parties, JDS, SP and BSP, among others, did not join the Congress-led march to meet President Pranab Mukherjee on the demonetisation issue.

On Thursday, Rahul had announced, with leaders of several opposition parties by his side, that he has information on “personal corruption” of the Prime Minister, and that he was being stopped from presenting the details in Lok Sabha.

On Friday, the Samajwadi Party (SP) said that it would be presumed that the Congress wanted to do a “deal” with the BJP, and was only applying pressure, unless Rahul makes public whatever information he has. The BSP, NCP and JDS also said he should reveal the information in public now that the session is over, while the CPM said it is up to the Congress leader.

“Since he (Rahul) cannot speak in Parliament on the issue any longer, he should put out in public forum whatever earthshaking information he has,” SP’s Rajya Sabha MP Naresh Agrawal told The Indian Express. “If he still does not reveal that information, it means the Congress wants to do some deal with the BJP after building pressure (with talk about PM’s corruption).”

Agrawal said his party “boycotted” the Congress-led delegation’s visit to Rashtrapati Bhavan because Rahul chose to go alone to meet the Prime Minister on the farmers’ issues.

Speaking to reporters in Parliament earlier in the day, BSP chief Mayawati said that Rahul should hold a press conference and reveal the facts if he has evidence against Modi.

JDS chief spokesperson Danish Ali said, “Our view is that he should come out with whatever information he has on it. We hope he will do it.”

CPM Lok Sabha MP Mohammed Salim said, “If…there is no scope for speaking in Parliament on the issue, it is for the Congress to think what step to take on it.” Asked whether it is right to hold any vital information and not make it public, Salim said, “I will not sit in judgement.”

NCP Lok Sabha MP and party general secretary Tariq Anwar said, “He should come out with all the facts and tell the nation about it publicly now.”