Union Minister Smriti Irani on Sunday sent a legal notice to the Congress party and its leaders Pawan Khera, Jairam Ramesh, and Netta D'Souza over remarks against her 18-year-old daughter. She has asked them to tender a written unconditional apology and withdraw the allegations with immediate effect.
What did the Congress allege?
The Congress on Saturday alleged that Smriti Irani's daughter was running an "illegal bar" in Goa.
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 also functioning on a "fake licence".
"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.
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.
"The licence by Smriti Irani's daughter is in the name of a person who died in May 2021, and the licence was taken in June 2022 in Goa. But the person in whose name the licence is, had died 13 months ago. This is illegal," Khera said.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said they urge the prime minister to dismiss Irani from the cabinet after documents of alleged illegalities have come to the fore.
He said they will also raise this issue in Parliament.
"This kind of illegality is not possible without the influence from a senior minister in the Union cabinet. This person (Irani) had demanded on December 12, 2004, the resignation of then Gujarat CM. Today we demand from the prime minister that he should take the resignation of Smriti Irani," Ramesh said.
Smriti Irani says Congress' allegations against her daughter malicious
Hitting back at the Congress, Irani stated that the allegation that her daughter "runs an illegal bar is malicious, with the intent not only to assassinate her character but also to politically malign me".
Addressing a press conference, she said the allegations had been made "at the direction of the Congress leadership, namely the Gandhi family".
"Because I had the audacity to hold a press conference and question Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi on the Rs 5,000 crore loot of the Indian treasury," she said.
The minister accused Congress of "publicly mutilating" her daughter's character with its allegations.
Irani said, "Her (daughter's) character was publicly mutilated by the Congress party and they claim that the mutilation stemmed from a show-cause notice. I want to ask that Congressperson, where is my daughter's name in the papers that he flashed?".
"An 18-year-old child, a college student... her character was assassinated by Congressmen at party headquarters. Her fault is that her mother fought Lok Sabha elections against Rahul Gandhi from Amethi in 2014 and 2019," she added.
(With PTI and ANI inputs)
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