Are ‘scamsters’ Nirav and Lalit Modi BCs, asks Uttam

Nalgonda MP N. Uttam Kumar Reddy asks why is the BJP shaming the genuine Backward Class people clubbing the fraudsters with them

Nalgonda MP N. Uttam Kumar Reddy said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is desperate to divert attention from Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from Parliament by raising the bogey of attack on Backward Classes, but the country was not buying it.

Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi, against whom Mr. Gandhi raised questions, do not belong to the BC community and their scams looted India, he said, further asking why is the BJP shaming the genuine Backward Class people clubbing the fraudsters with them. Mr. Reddy was addressing a dharna at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Wednesday, organised by the BC Welfare Association Telangana State president Jajula Srinivas Goud.

The Congress MP said that Nirav Modi was accused of defrauding Punjab National Bank of nearly ₹ 14,000 crore, while Lalit Modi allegedly embezzled thousands of crores from Indian cricket fans and tarnished the reputation of Indian cricket worldwide. Both the scamsters are reportedly living a luxurious life somewhere in Europe. “It is perplexing that the BJP would choose to use these controversial figures in their campaign, falsely associating them with the BC community,” he said.

He said Congress was the only party that had genuinely supported BC causes including the demand for a BC Census in the country. If the BJP is so concerned about the BCs why is it not pressurising Mr. Modi for a BC Census in the country, he asked. He also reminded that the BJP had ignored the BC community’s long-standing demand for a separate ministry in the Union government, similar to those for SC, ST, and Minority affairs. He said that the previous Congress governments implemented several measures to improve the lives of BCs at the national level and in the undivided Andhra Pradesh.

Former MP and senior Congress leader V Hanmanth Rao ridiculed the BJP’s demand for an apology from Mr. Gandhi and said why should he apologise for calling out the scamsters who looted public money and fled from the country. Why is the BJP raising the OBC issue when the ‘fraud’ of the Adani group was raised in the Parliament? He said he would conduct a round-table meeting at Press Club, Hyderabad inviting the intellectuals to expose the BJP on the OBC issue.

Mr. Hanmanth Rao also lashed out at the Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla alleging that he was dancing to the tunes of the BJP leadership. He doesn’t even have the courage that the Election Commission showed, by not displaying any haste to announce a bypoll for the Waynad constituency represented by Mr. Gandhi till he was disqualified.