Congress, BJP spar over ‘son’ business

Lucknow, Oct 9 (IANS) The Congress and BJP in Uttar Pradesh sparred over BJP chief Amit Shah's son's alleged dramatic rise in business fortunes, with the Congress terming it part of the BJP's "new beta (son) model", and the party in turn targetting Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi as a "child refusing to grow up".

Addressing a press conference, Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Raj Babbar hit out at the BJP chief over his son Jay Shah's alleged 16,000 fold rise in business turnover in a year.

"This is BJP's new beta model. No business school teaches this beta model. Only that efficient student can learn this model whose uncle is Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) and whose father is Mota Bhai Shah (Amit Shah)," said Babbar.

Babbar said that many start up companies were begun during the tenure of this government but "Jay Ho company emerged fastest among all".

He said that many BJP presidents have resigned on the grounds of morality after their names appeared in certain scams.

"L.K. Advani resigned after his name appeared in Jain Hawala case. Badaru Laxman resigned after the Tehalka expose and Nitin Gadkari resigned after he was accused in a corruption case. Will Amit Shah follow them?" he asked.

In retort, Uttar Pradesh Health Minister and state government spokesman Siddharthnath Singh attacked the Congress and news website 'The Wire', which published an article on Jay Shah's alleged business activities.

Picking on the Congress Vice President, Singh said, "This child is refusing to grow up" after Gandhi called Shah's son the biggest beneficiary of demonetisation. "This leader fails to come out of his diaper as he does not even pay attention to the fact that the company that he is referring to had in fact closed before the announcement of demonetisation," Singh said.

He said the Congress leader should understand that the "beta (son) model" they are referring to should have ideally increased profits of the company not made losses. Singh said the Congress is a master of "beta model" and should have understood the difference between turnover and profit.

Singh also attacked 'The Wire' for its piece on the business transactions of Jay Shah and said "such supari journalism" (contract journalism) needed to be trashed. He scoffed at the charges levelled in the article and said that the contents were factually incorrect.