File Photo: Former Union Minister Shankarsinh Vaghela.
Former Union Minister Shankarsinh Vaghela, against whom CBI filed an FIR for selling NTC land allegedly at "throwaway prices", today warned the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government not to settle scores of public life.
"NDA should not try to settle scores of public life. Today they are there (in power) and tomorrow, someone else will be there and nobody will be spared, from Prime Minister to Chief Minister or the entire Cabinet, skeletons will come out from their cupboards also," Mr Vaghela, the Leader of Opposition in Gujarat Assembly, told reporters in Ahmedabad.
"They should not waste time in such activities rather they should do some positive work," the Congress leader said.
The CBI had yesterday filed an FIR against Mr Vaghela and six others for sale of National Textile Corporation's land in Mumbai to a Kolkata-based private firm, causing an alleged loss of Rs 709 crore to public exchequer.
The central probe agency had also raided his house in Gandhinagar along with eight other places in the country.
Mr Vaghela had started his political career with the BJP. He along with Mr Modi and former Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel had helped BJP come to power in the state for the first time in 1995. But due to his difference with Mr Modi and Mr Patel, Mr Vaghela split from the BJP in 1996 to become Gujarat's Chief Minister.
However, in the 1998 election, he badly lost to the BJP and merged his party with Congress.
Mr Vaghela, who is a bitter rival of Mr Modi in state politics since then, reiterated that he did no wrong and his life is like an open book.
"This vindictiveness is not good. The people in public life should not throw stones on others if they themselves live in glass houses. They threw stones at my home, but did not get anything. My life is like an open book, I did not do any illegitimate transactions," he said.