Nirmala Sitharaman slams Rahul Gandhi on Adani allegations; calls him repeat offender

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Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman addressing a press conference at the BJP Karnataka office.

BENGALURU: Senior BJP leader and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has slammed Rahul Gandhi for his allegation of favouritism towards industrialist Gautam Adani by the Modi government. Addressing a press conference, she called Rahul Gandhi a repeat offender.

“If Rahul Gandhi really thinks that Adani has been given all these things (undue favours), it is not true. Let me also say he’s now becoming a repeat offender in terms of making baseless allegations against the Prime Minister. We saw that prior to the 2019 elections, and now he is doing it again. He doesn’t seem to learn any lessons from all these false allegations that he wants to level against the Prime Minister”, Nirmala Sitharaman said.

She accused Rahul Gandhi of hypocrisy in his allegations of favouritism towards Adani by saying that the former Congress government in Kerala gave the contract for Vizhinjam Port construction to Adani without any tender. “It was the (then) Congress government (in Kerala), which gave Vizhinjam Port on a platter to Adani. It was not given on the basis of any tender. Now, it is not that (Congress) government, but the CPM government. But what stopped him from asking and demanding that Kerala cancel that order?” She also said that the entire solar project in Rajasthan has been given to Adani by the Congress-ruled state government.

Nirmala Sitharaman also said that her party has an emotional connect with Bengaluru, recalling the arrests of two senior BJP central leaders during the Emergency declared by the Indira Gandhi government in the late 1970s.

She alleged that during the tenure of the UPA, farmers in North Karnataka were in trouble and claimed that their situation improved only after NDA came to power. “People of North Karnataka were suffering during UPA, farmers were in trouble. We repeatedly brought this to the attention of the then UPA government”, she said.

Nirmala Sitharaman claimed that infrastructure projects in Karnakata got the necessary fillip after the arrival of BJP governments both at the Centre and in Karnataka. “Roads, highways, rail services, infrastructure, agriculture and labour welfare are happening in Karnataka after our arrival. Road works worth Rs 1 lakh crore has been done in the state including the Bengaluru-Mysuru expressway. Between 2009-14, a similar grant of Rs 835 crore was given for railway works in the state an Rs 7,561 crores have been given to Railways till now since our government came”, Sitharaman said.

This was Nirmala Sitharaman’s first visit to Karnataka after the Assembly election in the state was announced by the Election Commission. (ANI)

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