Congress defends Robert Vadra, dismisses demand for probe

Congress on Saturday rejected demands for a probe against Robert Vadra, Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law, in the wake of allegation by civil society activists Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan that he was favoured by realty major DLF.

"An inquiry into what? Is a business transaction between two private entities duly reported to the statutory authorities illegal? Is it a crime?", party spokesperson Manish Tewari told reporters here, while terming the activists as 'B' team of BJP.

He was asked about demands for a probe into the affairs of Vadra as also how his business has grown to a level of Rs 300 crore from a tiny capital base. The refrain of Tewari was that all the information about the business has been regularly filed with the statutory authorities. He said the charges made by "B team of BJP" were nothing but "baseless and unsubstantiated".

When asked whether Congress was responding in the matter as Vadra is related to the Gandhi family or because he is a member of the party, Tewari said that a response needed to be given "to expose" BJP for resorting to "low level politics" against the party by involving private citizens.

Tewari alleged that the charges levelled by Kejriwal were the latest instance of BJP targeting Congress with a chain of baseless allegations. He said it all started with a "mythical answer to a purported RTI query" concerning the foreign travel expenses of Gandhi with the Gujarat Chief Minister "starting shooting wildly from the hip." Asked about Kejriwal daring Vadra to file a defamation case against him, he said "we do not need advice from such a person who is making charges to further his politics".