The Congress on Thursday demanded a judicial probe into the allegations that Swedish auto maker, Scania, offered bribes to government officials in India to secure business.
Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan issued statement in which he claimed that an investigative documentary jointly done by Swedish public news broadcaster, SVT and German public TV, ZDF, uncovered “serious cases of corruption by the Swedish automaker”.
“I hope Prime Minister Modi will institute a thorough inquiry to find out the truth in this matter,” Mr. Chavan said a statement.
Union Minister for Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari’s office had already dismissed the allegations as “baseless and fabricated”.
“The reports of the bus contract scam are indeed very disturbing. The Scandinavian government reports point a finger at the Central government, various Ministers, various State governments...We demand a judicial inquiry into this,” Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said at a press conference.
The spokesperson also demanded a similar probe into the death of a rape survivor’s father in a road accident in Kanpur and questioned the silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue.
“We demand that the family be duly compensated. We demand a judicial inquiry and also demand that the insensitive government wakes up and owns up its moral responsibility,” she said.
According to the Uttar Pradesh police, a 13-year-old girl was allegedly raped on Monday. While the medical examination of the rape survivor was going on at the community health centre, her father was hit by a truck when he had stepped out for tea. The family members alleged it as a planned murder.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi should at least speak a word about the incident, but he has remained silent. So is Home Minister Amit Shah who is busy in toppling non-BJP governments and polarising elections. Chief Minister Adityanath should resign taking moral responsibility as he has also not spoken about it at all,” she told reporters.
“We hope Mr. Modi will find this worthy of a mention, but, what disturbs me the most is that the woman M.P. from U.P., who is also the Union Minister for Women and Child Development, is absolutely silent on this and not a word from her has come. I hope she will break her silence because security of women is not an irrelevant issue,” Ms. Shrinate said, taking a swipe at Smriti Irani.
