In yet another political harakiri, the Congress party which proceeded to portray BJP stalwart Smriti Irani as corrupt and venal, shot itself in the foot when it posted a tweet alleging a toilet scam in Amethi. The official Twitter account of Uttar Pradesh Congress Sevadal today tweeted an article which said that the construction of toilets in Smriti Irani’s constituency—Amethi, was marred with corruption.
Taking a swipe at Smriti Irani, the Uttar Pradesh Congress Sevadal tweeted, “Has this toilet scam happened before or in the middle of Antakshari? It is clear from this scam that the people of Amethi must be still defecating in open.” An article alleging toilet scam in Amethi was attached in the tweet by the UP Congress Sevadal.
While the Congress party fell over itself to pass snide remarks against the Union Minister to show the BJP and the leader of being corrupt and venal, it manifestly did not read the article it has attached in the tweet to buttress its claims that the corruption has taken place in Smriti Irani’s constituency–Amethi in the construction of toilets.
The article attached claims that the head of the village of Amethi’s Vikaskhand Bhadar has brazenly presided over corruption scam to the tunes of crores of rupees. It adds that the matter came to light when the villagers submitted an affidavit to the District Magistrate Arun Kumar demanding an inquiry into the entire case. The article cleverly describes Amethi as Union Minister Smriti Irani’s constituency to somehow tie the corruption links to her.
According to the article, the head of the village Mochwa of Vikaskhand Bhadar is involved in a massive corruption scam related to the construction of toilets in the region. It claims that ineligible people were added in the list several times over and names of husband and wife both were used to swindle money from the funds meant for the construction of toilet.
The complaint letter submitted by the villages says that the target of constructing 240 toilets in the financial year 2018 in 1920 and 240 toilets in 2019 was given by the District Panchayat Raj Department but those numbers of toilets were not built in the region. Instead, contrary to the norms, many ineligible people were allotted the toilets.
The Congress party tried to chalk up the alleged corruption scam on the BJP and the Union Minister Smriti Irani by asserting that the corruption took place under their rule. However, as per the complaints filed by the villagers, the scam pertains to the period 2018-2019, when the former Congress President Rahul Gandhi was the Member of Parliament from Amethi and was responsible for supervising the developmental work continuing in his constituency.
Ms Smriti Irani, in a high-voltage political contest, defeated Rahul Gandhi on the Amethi seat only in May 2019. It is, therefore, disingenuous, on the part of the article and the UP Congress Sevadal to allege that the supposed toilet scam took place under Smriti Irani’s leadership. On the contrary, if the Uttar Pradesh Congress Sevadal truly cares about the villagers’ grievances, then they should ask questions of Rahul Gandhi as to how such a scam happened right under his nose at a time when he was the elected representative of the constituency.
