File photo of senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh.
The Congress opened another front against the BJP on Sunday, alleging a Rs 100-crore scam against its leader and former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Singh Dhumal and his son, lawmaker Anurag Thakur.
The Congress has alleged that in June 2002 -- when Mr Dhumal was the Chief Minister -- the state government had violated norms, leasing out 16 acres of government land to the Himachal cricket association to build a stadium at a throwaway lease rent. Mr Thakur, the secretary of the Board of Cricket Control of India, was the president of HPCA at the time.
Waving what the party claimed were documents supporting the charge, the Congress said the land was given on lease at a sum of Rs 1 per month.
"According to the rules of the Himachal Pradesh government, there is a rent of Rs 94 lakh every year on the 16-acre land. But it was leased for 99 years at just Rs 12 per year," Congress spokesperson Jairam Ramesh told reporters.
The transfer, he said, smacks of "blatant constitutional impropriety, parent conflict of interest, glaring misuse of office, usurpation of public property and duping of public exchequer".
The Congress has highlighted the cricket "scam" as part of its strategy to pin down the BJP government on corruption charges. Its demand for the resignation of BJP ministers Sushma Swaraj, Vasundhara Raje and Shivraj Singh Chouhan has caused a logjam in the ongoing monsoon session in Parliament.
"I wonder if Prime Minister Narendra Modi's promise of acting against corruption would apply retrospectively in this case," Mr Ramesh said, seeking action against Mr Thakur.
Mr Thakur denied the allegation. "There is no truth in it. This a baseless allegation levelled against me and my father... The Congress is expert in lying and they will soon have to say sorry," he added.