Rajiv Gandhi Trust land scam in Amethi: Smriti Irani. NaMo, restitute kaalaadhan. Send looters to Tihar, it is rajadharma.

 Attacking Rahul Gandhi on his home turf, Union Minister Smriti Irani on Sunday questioned the alleged sale of land meant for a bicycle factory here to a trust run by his family but the Congress dismissed her "land grab" allegation as "wild and baseless".

Calling the Congress Vice President a "liar", the BJP leader, who was addressing a rally here, claimed that Gandhi family had failed to deliver on their development promises to Amethi, which had to wait for all these years to get a rail line.

She claimed that 65 acres of farmers' land, which was acquired for setting up Samrat Bicycles factory, was sold to Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust on February 24 this year.

"Narendara Modi is not a liar but Rahul is. Grabbing 65 acres of farmers' land in Amethi is a proof of it," she said. "65 acres of  land was acquired for (bicycle) factory in the 80s. Did the factory come up, did anyone get job, what happened to the land?

"...No one can dare to speak... But it is on stamp paper. The land was bought by Rajiv Gandhi Trust."

Hitting out at Rahul Gandhi, Irani later told reporters that the Congress Vice President has been saying on land bill that he will not let anyone take an inch of farmers' land. "He is indicating perhaps that that he wants to take the land for himself. The documents are in public domain," she said.

Terming the allegations as "absolutely wild and baseless", Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said, "I don't understand the connection between the closure of Samrat bicycles and the purchasing and auction under court orders."

He said it showed "utterly irresponsibility" that a Union Minister should have levelled such allegations.

In her address, HRD Minister Irani took potshots at Rahul over his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying "reading a 1.5 minutes address and talking about suit-boot is easy, but why does he shy away from open debate. If he can debate for one and a half hour, it will come to fore who is right and who is wrong."