Gadkari should acknowledge Gujarat corruption: Sibal

Ranchi, June 24: Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal today (Jun 24) sought to know why BJP president Nitin Gadkari did not acknowledged civil rights activist Anna Hazare's charges of corruption in Gujarat.

"BJP president Nitin Gadkari says he is with Anna Hazare. And Anna Hazare says Gujarat is in grip of corruption. So Gadkari should admit corruption in Gujarat and (go on a) fast in Gujarat against corruption,'' Sibal said at a press conference here.

Asking the BJP to look into how yoga guru Ramdev had ''acquired'' government land ''paying peanuts'', he asked, "Who gave the land? Is it the chief ministers of Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand?... The RSS should admit that they are backing him."

Reminding the saffron party of the democratic values and their importance to take other developmental initiatives on priority basis, Sibal asked the BJP and the RSS not to create an atmosphere in which growth could be blunted.

"For Congress and the UPA, issues like health, right to education, MNREGA, strengthening the public distribution system and the Food Security bill, which is coming up, are the real issues, because these initiatives alone can root out poverty...so they (opposition) should not create any such situation which could blunt financial growth," Sibal said.

PTI