- Sunday, January 12, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
JUST days after India’s cabinet minister Smriti Irani attacked opposition leader Rahul Gandhi saying the latter was politically unproductive and was hell-bent to reduce the productivity of the country’s parliament after the Indian National Congress leader took part in protests against the Narendra Modi government, it was time for the grand-old party to hit back.
On Saturday (23), the Congress demanded PM Modi to sack Irani, who looks after the ministries for minority affairs and women and child development, alleging that an “illegal bar” was being run in the south-western state of Goa by her daughter. Irani, a former model and actor, refuted the charges.
In a statement, Kirat Nagara, the lawyer of Irani’s 18-year-old daughter Zoish said his client is neither an owner nor operating the restaurant named ‘Silly Souls Goa’ and has not received any show-cause notice from any authority over the allegations.
He added that various “erroneous, frivolous , malicious and defamatory social media posts being made by various vested quarters trying to settle political scores with our client’s mother, the renowned politician Smriti Irani each of which are predicated on blatant falsities”.
Terming the charges “baseless”, Nagara said, “It is unfortunate that they have resorted to spreading a false propaganda only to sensationalize a non issue without ascertaining true facts and with a predetermined objective of defaming our client for solely being the daughter of a political leader.”
Noting that it is a “very serious issue”, the Congress also shared a copy of the show-cause notice given to the bar, and said the excise official who gave the notice is reportedly being transferred after pressure from authorities.
Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera told reporters that there are serious charges of corruption against Irani’s family and her daughter is allegedly running a restaurant in Goa, in which a bar is functioning on a “fake license”.
“The license by Smriti Irani’s daughter is in the name of a person who died in May 2021, and the license was taken in June 2022 in Goa. But the person in whose name the license is, had died 13 months ago. This is illegal,” he told reporters.
He said according to Goa rules, a restaurant can get only one bar license but the restaurant in question has got two.
“We demand from the prime minister that Smriti Irani should be immediately sacked as a minister from the Union cabinet. You owe it to this country, to the youth of this country,” he said.
To a question on Irani attacking Rahul Gandhi, Khera said, “There cannot be any comparison between something as noble as running a newspaper and something like running an illegal bar in Goa”.
“Is this being done without her knowledge and was the licence given without her influence,” he asked.
He also alleged that bouncers of private security have been deployed around the restaurant in Goa, to keep the media out of bounds. “We want to know from you under whose influence is this being done. Who is behind this illegal work,” he asked.
[With PTI inputs]
