Union Minister Smriti Irani accused the Congress on Sunday of colluding with those who had killed innocent people. Addressing an election meeting in Kushinagar, Ms. Irani hit out at Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, saying she made Navjot Singh Sidhu, who had embraced Pakistan’s Army chief and said that Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan is his brother, the president of the Punjab Congress. “If the Gandhi family has the courage, it should refute my allegations,” she added.
In an apparent reference to Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with a money-laundering case, Mr. Irani alleged that the Congress was shielding a person who had links with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. Taking a jibe at the “ladki hoon, lad sakti hoon” (I am a girl and I can fight) slogan of the Congress for the ongoing Uttar Pradesh poll, the Union Minister said the boat of the grand old party was sinking and it had handed over the charge of the sinking boat to women. “They emerge as chunavjeevi at the time of elections and come up with a new formula, some times in the name of caste, some times in the name of religion,” she said.
