Mallya met Jaitley before fleeing: Rahul

Guwahati: AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi, in his election speech in Muslim-dominated Goalpara East constituency, on Monday said fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya had met Union finance minister Arun Jaitley before fleeing the country.
Keeping in mind the electoral composition of the area, he cautioned that minorities will face harassment if BJP comes to power in Assam.
Rahul said PM Narendra Modi has failed to bring back black money stashed away in foreign banks and deposit Rs 15 lakh from that amount to citizens' accounts. "Instead of bringing it back, the government came out with a scheme for turning black money into white," said Rahul.
"Mallya defaulted thousands of crores, yet he managed to flee the country. I want to ask why Mallya met Arun Jaitley before he fled the country," Rahul questioned, amid loud applause from the crowd, mostly comprising members from minority communities.
Rahul's Mallya jibe against the BJP government came close on the heels of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remarks that his government had tightened the screws on bank defaulters and no one's attempt to defraud trusted financial institutions will be spared.
At a BJP rally in Rangapara constituency last week, Modi had said the rich have usurped public money and those who were at fault are fleeing due to fear of going to jail.
The AICC vice-president termed Modi's government as an anti-poor "suit boot ka sarkar". He said Congress is going to form "bhaichara ka sarkar" for the fourth term in Assam. "I promise that no one will harass you (minority community) in the name of religion or language. Our next Congress government will be bhaichara ka Sarkar," Rahul added.
He also addressed election rallies in minority-dominated Abhayapuri South and Dhubri constituencies of lower Assam, which will go to the polls on April 11.