Ahmedabad

Bringing back Dawood is a matter of doing, not talking

Union Minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti today said the issue of bringing back underworld don Dawood Ibrahim to India was a “matter of doing and not talking.”

To a query by reporters here that the Centre wants to bring back Dawood to India, but his aide Chhota Shakeel has reportedly said the government cannot nab him, Jyoti said much more has been spoken on the issue.

“This is a matter of doing, not talking,” she further said.

Notably, senior advocate Ram Jethmalani had recently stated that Dawood, a key accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, was willing to surrender to Indian authorities but Sharad Pawar, the then Chief Minister heading a Congress government in Maharashtra, had rejected the offer.

However, the NCP chief had yesterday said that Jethmalani had contacted him over Dawood’s willingness to surrender, but conditions put forward for it were not acceptable to the state government.

The offer was made during Pawar’s tenure as Chief Minister in 1990s.

“It is true that Ram Jethmalani had given a proposal about Dawood’s willingness to return. But there was a condition that Dawood should not be kept in jail. Rather he be allowed to remain in a house. This was not acceptable. We said he had to face the law,” Pawar had told reporters.

Rahul misguiding people on food park issue

Union Minister of State for Food Processing Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti today alleged that Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi was misguiding people and farmers by raking up the issue of food park proposed in his constituency to gain political advantage.

“He (Rahul Gandhi) has raked up this issue (of food park in Amethi) now. Had he raised the issue in 2010, it would have been set up,” Jyoti told reporters here during a mass contact drive of BJP in Vejalpur area of the city.

“He does not want to set up this (food park). He is not concerned about the country, he only misguides the people of this country,” the minister alleged.

“Was he sleeping before 2014…whether he did not go to his constituency or what… why did he not do it earlier? I want to ask him these questions straight away,” she said.

“Baba Ramdev’s food park and yours (Rahul Gandhi’s) were conceptualised together. Baba Ramdevji’s mega food park has started. Its products are being supplied not only in the country, but in the entire world,” said Jyoti.

“Where were you (Rahul Gandhi) sleeping up till now…Did you not avail land…You did not do anything for the food park. So, I want to say that Rahul Gandhi is misguiding the people of this country and he is only using farmers for his political benefit,” she further alleged.

“Had the power (of the country) not remained in their (Congress) hands after independence, the condition of farmers and the poor people would not have been so miserable,” she said, adding that there are no issues left with Opposition.

“Land had been allotted. Work was very much underway,” Rahul had earlier said while alleging that “food park project has been snatched from us as per a well-planned conspiracy”.

Meanwhile, on her statement about the quality of food provided in the anganwadis, Jyoti said, “Our government is serious about the anganwadis, but distribution is a subject of state governments.”

During a function of PHD Chamber of Commerce in Indore on Friday, Jyoti had alleged that children and women are served food meant for animals in the name of nutritious food at anganwadi centres.

PTI