After Arun Jaitley, Nitin Gadkari gives clean chit to Vasundhara Raje

Jaipur/ New Delhi: Union minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari has given a clean chit to Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and her MP son Dushyant Singh regarding their alleged links with former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi.

Mr Gadkari’s statements are another shot in the arm for Ms Raje who was kept on tenterhooks by the party for three days before finally deciding to defend her. Mr Gadkari’s support is important to Ms Raje as even though party spokespersons have defended her, they didn’t really reject allegations against her but merely referred to Ms Raje’s statement in which she feigned ignorance about the documents released by Mr Lalit Modi claiming that she supported his immigration application in the UK with a request to keep it secret from the Indian authorities.

Mr Gadkari, on a visit to Rajasthan, met Ms Raje at her official residence and later told mediapersons that Ms Raje has the full backing of the party and government.

“The allegations against Vasundhara ji are baseless. She is legally, ethically and logically correct,” Mr Gadkari said.

Describing the allegations against Ms Raje’s son Dushyant as “unfortunate and baseless”, Mr Gadkari said no irregularity had taken place in Mr Singh’s business deal with Mr Modi. According to him, it was a business deal and taking a loan from someone was not a crime, and particularly because the deal was transparent and the entries were shown in his income-tax return.

Meanwhile, the Congress attacked finance minister Arun Jaitley in the controversy over his clean chit to Ms Raje and the former IPL boss, terming it as a “clear-cut cover-up” but stopped short of seeking his resignation.

“We charge the finance minister with influencing the ED probe in the case,” Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Jairam Ramesh said.