Rahul leading good life by making sweetheart deals with fly-by-night operators: Arun Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on Congress president Rahul Gandhi, alleging that he is leading a good life and taking foreign holidays without any substantial source of income by making "sweetheart deals" with fly-by-night operators.

Addressing a press conference, Jaitley said that in the past few days, some media organisations have reported some stories about the Congress president.

"I have myself studied them personally and it is necessary to make the analysis public. This person (Rahul Gandhi) has not done any business in his life. But, he has been leading a good life, taking foreign holidays, etc."

He further said a media expose has revealed that the family owned a farm house in South Delhi which is now owned by the brother and sister of current generation of the family.

"Periodically tenancies are created in favour of persons many of whom needed help when the Congress-led UPA was in power. Amongst the names of the tenants, the critical person is Jignesh Shah of FTIL and real estate developer Sanjay Chandra of Unitech builder," Jaitley alleged, adding both of whom are accused in different economic offences.

He further asked, "Who else would enter into such sweetheart deals' except the fly-by-night operators who needed state patronage."

Hitting out at the Congress, Jaitley suggested that the party had launched a "capital creation programme" for the Gandhi family. Rentals were paid by obliging tenants in advance. It is unlikely that the tenants ever needed to live in Delhi because they have had no business operation in Delhi.

Later in a blog, referring to Rahul Gandhi, Jaitley said this man makes reckless allegations without any basis. It was no rocket science for him to know who were conferring him the largesse.

"He aspires to be a Prime Minister. Such aspirants, like Caesar's wife, must be beyond suspicion. They must be unsuspectable. With tainted hands, he must at least remember that 'people in glass houses do not throw stones'. The 'chowkidar' has finally caught a 'chor'," Jaitley wrote.

Last week, the BJP had cited the rise in Congress president’s income between 2004 and 2014 to question its source, claiming he had no ostensible source of income.

"In his election affidavit in 2004, his income was Rs 55,38,123 while in 2009, it rose to Rs 2 crore and in 2014 it rose to Rs 9 crore. We know how much an MP earns. We want to ask what is this Rahul Gandhi model of development without an ostensible source of income," Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said.

Referring to Gandhi's brother-in-law Robert Vadra, Prasad said, "Till now, we had seen the Vadra model of development under which you invest Rs 6-7 lakh and earn Rs 700-800 crore in two-three years. Now we have come across the Rahul Gandhi model of development."

He also questioned Gandhi whether he had bought two properties of Rs 1.44 crore and Rs 5.36 crore from Unitech which was linked to the 2G spectrum allocation scam.