Am not afraid, have nothing to hide: Sonia on chopper scam

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday rejected as “baseless” allegations linking her and party leaders to bribes in the AgustaWestland chopper deal, calling them an attempt at character assassination.

Asserting that she is not “afraid” of being “cornered” on the issue, she asked the government what it has been doing in power for the last two years and demanded that the ongoing inquiry be completed impartially.

“I am not afraid of anyone cornering me as there is no basis to that. All the accusations they are throwing at us are false,” Gandhi told reporters in Parliament complex as the Bharatiya Janata Party sought to target her on the deal.

“Where are the proofs. They are lying. They are part of a strategy of character assassination which we have known these people indulge in,” Gandhi said.

Referring to the Modi government, Gandhi asked what has it been doing over the last two years.

“The government is there for the last two years. What are they doing? Inquiry is there, why don’t they complete it? Complete it as soon as possible, impartially,” she added.

Gandhi’s political secretary and senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel also rubbished the allegations against him and the party as “absolutely baseless.”

“This government, when they are saying all these things outside and inside the Parliament, why can’t they investigate,” Patel said.

“If there is something against me, they should find out and they should hang me,” he said when asked by reporters for his reactions over the allegations.

The comments of Sonia Gandhi and Patel come in the backdrop of BJP move to target the Congress president and other party leaders on the issue of bribes in the AugustaWestland chopper deal during the United Progressive Alliance regime in a bid to corner the main opposition party which has been paralysing Rajya Sabha on the Uttarakhand affair.