Questioning the high moral ground taken by the BJP candidate Arun Jaitely on corruption and black money and his personal attacks on Ms Priyanka Gandhi, former Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh today asked him to come clean on his opinion to the Tatas, defending the company in coal allocation and his lobbying for Anil Ambani’s power project with the Madhya Pradesh government reportedly for a handsome consideration which he has allegedly parked in a foreign country.
Describing Jaitely’s personal tirade against the Gandhi family as a classic example of pot calling kettle black, Capt Amarinder said, it is an irony that he (Jaitely) led the protests in the parliament against coal allocations to various private companies while so conveniently choosing to ignore his own stand and opinion just a few years ago that benefitted the Tatas and one more company.
“Imagine a man whose own hands are stained black, trying to malign the image of someone just because his party is not able to counter her charisma”, Capt Amarinder said while lashing out at Jaitely for trying to malign the image of Ms Priyanka Gandhi.
“His values and standards of probity seem to change with situations and circumstances”, the Congress candidate remarked, while pointing out how he defended the Tatas in the coal allocations just because the company paid him his price, as he always carries a price tag, for the opinion. He disclosed that in 2008, Jaitely in his opinion objected to the government’s move to impose profit sharing or royalty on Tata’s Coal to Liquid venture. This helped Tatas as they were saved from sharing the profit with the government.
“And the same Jaitely ran amuck just four years later claiming a scam in coal allocations as it suited him politically this time like his legal opinion had suited him financially a few years earlier”, Capt Amarinder remarked, while adding, at that time, he had argued in his 21 page legal opinion that administratively the government had no power to impose such measures and these were possible only through a legislation.
Capt Amarinder revealed that Jaitely has been accused of lobbying for Anil Ambani’s power project in Madhya Pradesh for which he was paid huge money which was transferred to a London based company Infraline. He said, while it is widely believed that Jaitley has been parking his money abroad through Iinfraline, with one Sunil acting as his middleman. “No wonder Jaitely’s wealth had a whopping jump from Rs 26 crores to Rs 158 crores within 6 years while he was not doing any business as he had stopped his law practice.