New Delhi, Dec 14 (IANS) Taking a dig at Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday said whenever he speaks, his own party gets "exposed" and it "benefits" the BJP.
"Rahulji, we want you to speak in the Lok Sabha, because when you speak, the Congress gets exposed and we are benefited from that," Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters here.
Javadekar's remarks came soon after the Congress Vice President accused the government of not allowing him and other opposition leaders to speak in the Lok Sabha.
Earlier in the day, Gandhi also alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is himself involved in graft. He said he wanted to reveal this in Parliament, but was prevented by the ruling majority from speaking there.
Slamming Gandhi, Javadekar said: "He accuses Modiji of avoiding the house and the debate. But Rahulji, it is you who had remained traceless for 50 days, and not the Prime Minister."
The BJP leader also slammed the opposition parties for protesting the government's November 8 decision to demonetise the old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes and said that even after losing power, they are still indulging in corruption.
"When they were in power, they were involved in corruption. All the corruption cases, whether its 2G scam, Commonwealth scam or coal scam -- all happened during their time."
"All these Congress, Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) were involved (in those scams)," Javdekar alleged.
"And even now, when they are not in power, they are still involved in corruption -- they are now involved in converting black money into white," Javdekar said.
The BJP leader's remarks came a day after a TV channel in a series of stings revealed that many politicians in Delhi-NCR are allegedly laundering cash and converting black money into white at a hefty commission.
Local leaders of various parties, including the Congress, NCP, Bahujan Samaj Party, Samajwadi Party, and the Janata Dal-United, were caught on camera at their party offices negotiating terms of black money conversion in the sting operations aired by India Today TV channel on Tuesday night.
"They (opposition leaders) are completely exposed now. The stings show they are demanding huge commission to convert black money into white," Javadekar said.
Taking a dig at the opposition parties, he said: "While we are busy in changing the face of the country, they are busy in changing notes."
"Now the people of the country have seen how black money was brought to their parties through the back doors of banks," he added.
Making light of the protest of opposition leaders against the demonetisation decision, Javadekar said: "Their protests (in the name of people's woes) are fake. They are protesting because it has hurt their businesses."
"They must apologise to the nation," he demanded.
The HRD Minister also lashed out at the opposition party leaders for stalling Parliament and accused them of escaping from the debate.
"Today Mallikarjun Kharge was asked to speak in the house, but he remained silent," the BJP leader said. "He remained silent because the Congress is not prepared for debate in the house."
