On Friday, while BJP official spokespersons cited instructions from the leadership that the Nehru-Gandhi scion should defend himself, the party's Allahabad MP Syama Charan Gupta said that the accusations warranted action by the party's parliamentary board after a thorough probe.
As the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) left its Sultanpur MP Varun Gandhi to fend for himself, with even a party leader demanding a probe against him, Gandhi on Saturday defended himself in a letter to the “people of India.”
He dismissed allegations against him by a US-based whistle-blower CEdmonds Allen. In a letter to the Prime Minister’s Office last month, Allenhad claimed that controversial arms dealer Abhishek Verma “blackmailed” Gandhi into sharing sensitive information of the defence consultative committee on crucial military deals.
Gandhi, in his letter, said that there was not a grain of truth or shred of evidence against him and he was not even privy to the information he wasaccused of leaking. However he did not respond to the allegations that he was honey-trapped.
On Friday, while BJP official spokespersons cited instructions from the leadership that the Nehru-Gandhi scion should defend himself, the party's Allahabad MP Syama Charan Gupta said that the accusations warranted action by the party's parliamentary board after a thorough probe.
Charan had been at loggerheads with Gandhi, when last year his name had cropped up as a potential CM's face for the UP polls. Incidentally, Verma currently in Delhi's Tihar jail had also been linked with Kanishka Singh, a close confidante of Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi. But Singh like Varun had rejected any association.
Varun wrote a detailed, seven-point letter, claiming that parliamentary records would show that he never attended any meeting of the defence consultative committee and very few standing committee meetings. “Clearly, I was neither actively seeking out or passing on any information. Had there been any hidden agenda or motivation as alleged in the letter, it would have been reflected in my attendance,” Gandhi said.
As a first-time Opposition MP, he claimed he could not, and did not, have any access to any sensitive defence information.
Citing the lawyer’s claim of furnishing these details to the CBI and ED, he said: “Had these top agencies even (had) the least suspicion or proof of any involvement whatsoever on my part in all these years, it would surely have been reported by now,” he insisted.
The BJP leader claimed he and his family were deeply traumatised by these “lies” and he was taking legal recourse against those who have sought to tarnish his reputation and public standing. “Here, I simply wanted to share the truth without delay, so that such mischief is nipped in the bud.”
The BJP leader insisted that the US-based lawyer, whom he says he never met, was naming public figures like him to attract greater public attention for his grievances, real or imagined, against his former associate Verma. “I have needlessly been sought to be embroiled in a controversy, in which I have no part,” he said.
He reiterated that he first met Verma when he was a college student in England. “He was introduced as the son of late Smt Veena and Shri Shrikant Verma, both Members of Parliament from a well-respected family. We met socially over a short period of time. It has been many years since we last met. At no point did we ever discuss work, neither his nor mine,” Gandhi said.
Once the blue-eyed boy of the BJP, Gandhi has fallen out of favour with the leadership of late. The party was not happy at his supporters projecting him as the CM candidate for poll-bound Uttar Pradesh . Coinciding with theBJP’s national executive in Allahabad last June, massive hoardings had come up, juxtaposing his picture with those of Modi and BJP president Amit Shah – a practice not taken kindly in the BJP.
Vibes from the Congress were also unnerving the BJP leadership. On June 23, for the first time in years, Sonia Gandhi went to Varun’s father, Sanjay Gandhi's samadhi. Also the capital grapevine suggests that he has been in touch with his cousin Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. UP Congress general secretary Umesh Pandit, has been quit openly demanding that Sanjay Gandhi’s son, Varun, be brought back into the party fold before the forthcoming assembly elections.
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