Even as Congress fumes, BJP denies allegation of leaking Dhingra Commission report

The Congress and the BJP today sparred over the "leak" of the reported findings of Justice S N Dhingra commission that Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, had allegedly made unlawful profits in a land deal in 2008 in Haryana.

The Congress accused the BJP governments at the Centre and in Haryana of "deliberately and selectively leaking" the report to "damn" Vadra out of vendetta, despite court injunctions on its publication, a charge rejected by Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu and Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Khattar. The Dhingra commission had probed alleged irregularities in the grant of land licences to a firm owned by Vadra and submitted its 182-page report to Khattar on August 31, 2016. The contents of the report are yet to be made public by Haryana government which had given an undertaking in the Punjab and Haryana High Court not to release the report until directed by the court.

A report in a leading business daily citing unnamed people familiar with the commission report, however, claimed that the probe had indicted Vadra for allegedly making unlawful profit from a land deal in Haryana in 2008 without spending a single paisa. Khattar on his part said action will be taken on the findings of the Dhingra commission. Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi accused the BJP- led governments of being in the habit of deliberately leaking reports as it believes in "politics of vendetta." "Some very strange things are happening. I can understand the government, both the Central and the state, and a ruling party which is steeped in vendetta and blinded by rage by deliberately leaking the so-called Dhingra Commission report.

"This government is in the old habit of deliberately leaking reports as it believes in the politics of vendetta. Such is your politics of vendetta that you are blinded and selectively leak anything to attack anyone," he told reporters in Delhi when asked about the issue. Both Naidu and Khattar rejected the Congress' allegation. "We don't have the habit of leaking out... This government believes in transparency and does not interfere in the legal process. We don't run after individuals," Naidu told reporters in Delhi. The Information and Broadcasting minister said he does not have any information on the Dhingra panel report.

Hitting out at the Congress, he said, "They may be speaking of their own past experiences (of leaking reports)." The minister said the government will take action based on the findings of the report. Denying the Congress' allegation, Khattar said the high court should take cognisance of the matter. The Commission was asked to probe alleged irregularities in grant of licences by the previous Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress government for development of colonies, housing societies and commercial complexes in four Guragon villages.

Vadra's Skylight Hospitality is among the firms under scanner. "Once the report is made public and something comes out, it will be a matter of investigation," the chief minister told reporters in Chandigarh.