New Delhi, Aug 28: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Prakash Javadekar on Friday denied the charges that were levied by expelled party leader Jaswant Singh, who sharpened his attack on the party by asserting that senior party leader L K Advani was “at the centre” of the cash-for-votes scam drama enacted in the Lok Sabha last year.

Addressing a press conference in the national capital, Javadekar strongly denied all the charges and said that all the blame were baseless and attack on Advani is uncalled for.

“We totally deny the charges levied by one magazine (Outlook) and Jaswant Singh regarding the cash-for-votes scam. It was orchestrated by the ruling party (Congress) and the proof of this is with the channel which did the sting operation, it is not a sting operation done by political party, but done by one news channel in which our three MPs
(Ashok Argal, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahavir Bhagora), who were offered money have cooperated with that channel and they have all the evidence,” Javadekar said.

“Let me first totally refuse that it was a BJP orchestrated plan. No way. It was the ruling party organized drive, which was tried to be caught live by one channel in which we cooperated for unearthing the truth,” he added.

Javadekar further said that the Kandahar hijack issue, which took place in December 1999, is long discussed and over, and now there was no point in unnecessarily raising the issue.

“The Kandahar episode is a 11 year old episode in which 160 lives were in danger, the Government of the day (1999), took everybody including Congress and other major parties into confidence and went ahead with what was best and advised by security experts,” Javadekar said.

“So, the decision was taken at a Government level. The chapter is over, so some people raising unnecessary controversy over the issue 11 years after is needless. It’s not right, and attack on Advani is uncalled for,” he added. (ANI)