BJP state President Satpal Singh Satti stated that Congress President Virbhadra Singh conduct has tarnished Himachal’s image. In a statement from Shimla Satpal Singh Satti ridiculed Virbhadra Singh for putting the blame for his misdeeds on BJP leaders. Satti said what a great logic of Virbhadra Singh that all the gaffes of corruption should be grabbed by Singh and the guilty are BJP leaders. Satti blamed Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and the Finance Minister for shielding Virbhadra Singh for his corrupt escapades. He claimed that when the IT raids were conducted more than two years back when Singh was Steel Minister, why the Income Tax Department not simultaneously raided the house of Virbhadra Singh to corroborate or disprove the entries made in the company records having made payments to some “VBS”.
BJP chief criticized Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi for maintaining a dubious silence even after a private news channel had unearthed this scandal. They are only promoting corruption and protecting the corrupt, he further charged. Satti expressed surprise that Virbhadra Singh feigns ignorance about the IT raids and disclosure of his name two years back. Virbhadra Singh has thus admitted that he is the most inefficient and incompetent politician ignorant of what is happening in his own ministry under his very nose. He needs to abide by the advice of veteran BJP leader Shanta Kumar to gracefully quit politics if Virbhadra Singh has been left with the least sense of morality, he advised.
Satti said that since the raids were conducted more than two years back when he was the Steel Minister and after which he was shifted to another ministry, why Virbhadra Singh not volunteered a free and fair probe so that by the time Himachal assembly elections were held, people would have known what the reality was.
If Virbhadra Singh thinks he is ‘innocent’, Satti challenged, let him volunteer for an independent and impartial inquiry even today. Satti demanded to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to conduct fair investigation with the courts monitoring the progress.
Satpal Satti accused Virbhadra Singh with being in the habit of telling a series of lies. When Vijay Singh Mankotia released his CD five years back, Virbhadra had claimed that the voice in the CD is not his voice. But later the Forensic Science Laboratory contradicted his claim and declared that it matched with that of Virbhadra Singh.
When the same Mankotia had made serious allegations of moral turpitude against Virbhadra Singh in Rani Bhagyawati case, Satti reminded, Virbhadra Singh first instituted defamation proceedings against both and later struck a compromise with them preventing the people to know who was right and who was wrong.
