Senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad on Sunday questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi for remaining silence over the multi-crore PNB scam and said that the Prime Minister must have known about it or connected to it in some way or the other.

Azad said this in Guwahati while addressing a Press conference on Sunday.

The veteran Congress leaders was in the northeast since saturday-visiting Barak Valley in Assam and Meghalaya. On Sunday Azad addressed a public rally in Meghalaya, which is going to polls on February 27.

“I can only say that the scam size has grown from penny to billions now and from block level to international level now. The is a Government of International scams. All the scams are from one place and so there is no inquiry. He (Prime Minister) must have known about it or connected to it, otherwise why he is silent,” said Azad.

Referring to the scams that took place during the UPA Government, Azad said. “If there was a scam there were inquiries ordered. There is the 2G scam but who put the Minister behind the bars? It has been 35 years since the Bofors scam. All the subsequent Governments have made efforts but failed to prove anything,” said Azad.

“The Prime Minister is making tours all across the world. Why can’t he use his rapports to bring back these scam stars?” questioned Azad.

Azad accused the ruling BJP of indulging in politics of religion and said that they (BJP) have gone to the kitchen of people or to hostels to see what meat is being eaten or kept in fridges there. “That has never been the responsibility of the ruling political party of India,” said the senior Congress leader.

“The BJP has won elections in Assam in the past and they have manipulated the process to form a Government in Manipur by misusing Constitutional offices. They are somehow managing the government in these two states with borrowed leaders. Now they want to come to power in three more states. They are using muscle and money power to win elections in Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura,” he said adding that the voters in poll bound Meghalaya and Nagaland must take a lesson from Assam, where the saffron party is in power for almost two years now.

“The BJP is not aware about the people of the northeast-the northeastern States as well as Jammu & Kashmir are distinct due to their culture, way of life, food habits etc. I am more worried about preservation of our culture and way of life in northeastern states and in Jammu & Kashmir,which are different. We expect whoever party comes to power, it must respect the culture and way of life of the people,” said Azad.

He also referred to the recent incident of four judges of the Supreme Court addressing a press conference and said, “this is perhaps for the first time in the history of the world that four judges has to speak to save democracy in the country.”

Azad also slammed BJP Govt for putting restrictions on media, particularly the electronic media and said that the Government has even put restriction on telecasting the proceedings of the parliament-it is only two percent of Opposition and 98 percent of the ruling party.