The Congress on Monday demanded that the expenditure details of what it said were lavish weddings organised by Union ministers and BJP leaders should be made public.The opposition party demanded the BJP leaders must also explain where the money spent on weddings came from, how it was spent -- how much in cash and how much through cheques."We see BJP leaders having ostentatious and lavish weddings and spending crores of rupees, booking five star hotels and private aircraft. "We saw in Karnataka how close to Rs 300-Rs 400 crore were spent on a wedding. We have come to know that arrangements made for a wedding in Union Minister Nitin Gadkari's family, crores of rupees have been spent," Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi told the media here. He said: "On an average, if you go for private aircraft, Rs 20 lakh per hour is charged.
Around 10,000 guests were present at one such function held yesterday (Sunday)."Gogoi said that other ministers have organised extremely lavish and ostentatious weddings in their families in five star hotels. "These five star lavish weddings are an insult and mockery of the ordinary people, who are struggling to withdraw even Rs 2.5 lakh. This shows the wide disconnect between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the people," said Gogoi."It proves that there is one law for the rest of the country and a different law for BJP leaders set aside by Prime Minister (Narendra Modi)," the Congress leader added."The BJP patted itself on its back during a meeting, when the Prime Minister called upon the BJP MPs and MLAs to declare their bank transactions post November 8 (the day demonetisation was announced)," said Gogoi."Keeping the same argument in mind, for the sake of transparency, expenditure details of these mega five star weddings should be brought into the public domain," he added.