Sibal received award funded by Epstein in 2010, Rahul should respond: BJP
New Delhi (PTI): The BJP alleged on Saturday that former Union minister Kapil Sibal received an award funded by convicted American sex offender Jeffrey Epstein at an event in the US in 2010 and demanded a response on the issue from Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
Asked about the allegation, Sibal dismissed it as "rubbish". The Congress too rejected the charge, asserting that Sibal was not Epstein's guest at the event.
Sibal was the Union minister for human resource development at the time. He was given an award at the event for his "resolute support of global collaboration in education", Congress's media and publicity department head Pawan Khera said, adding, "Completely unrelated to Jeffrey Epstein".
In a post on X, BJP national spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari said, "In 2010, an award reportedly funded by Jeffrey Epstein was received by senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal, a figure long seen as close to the Gandhi family."
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Sam Pitroda, Congress's overseas department head, too was associated with the "same circles", Bhandari alleged.
He posted on X a document, which purportedly had Sibal's name on the list of awardees, alongside other dignitaries, including Pitroda, at the 2010 International Awards Gala that was organised in New York.
"Soon after that period, several policy shifts were witnessed during the then Congress-led government," the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said.
"Were these coincidences, or did external influence of Epstein attempt to shape decisions of Congress govt. Rahul Gandhi should answer!" he said, adding, "Epstein -- Congress Government's Valentine!"
Sibal quit the Congress in 2022. He is currently an Independent member of the Rajya Sabha, backed by the Samajwadi Party.
BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla also targeted the Congress over the issue.
"What kind of Congress' 'mohabbat ki dukan' was going on with Epstein? Why did Kapil Sibal accept an award from Epstein-funded IIE?" he asked in a post on X.
"Rahul Gandhi likes to speak a lot in Parliament, right? Will he say something about this now?" Poonawalla added.
Hitting back at the saffron party, Khera said, "BJP's Pradeep Bhandari and Shehzad Poonawalla are trying to peddle the claim that Kapil Sibal appears in the Jeffrey Epstein files."
"Much to their disappointment, he does not. In the process, they have only exposed their astonishing inability to read the very document they are selectively posting screenshots from," the Congress leader said in a post on X.
He claimed that the file that the BJP leaders are "waving around" was originally sent by Margaux Rogers to Epstein's personal assistant, Lesley Groff, on September 10, 2010, and Groff had then forwarded it to Epstein the same day.
"In other words, it was a compiled list of major public events happening in New York -- events Epstein may have wanted to track. Why? Because that's what he did. He was a predator who kept a watch on elite spaces and influential people," Khera said.
"It's a 59-page document -- listing events ranging from conferences to fashion shows. Kapil Sibal's name appears on page 55 -- under an Institute of International Education event," he added.
"But the BJP propagandists didn't bother reading that far. They saw the name, got excited, and rushed to manufacture a narrative -- hoping to drag the opposition into this mess and distract from the questions surrounding their own disgrace, Hardeep Singh Puri," the Congress leader said.
The Congress has been demanding Union minister Puri's resignation after his name appeared in the "Epstein files" released in the United States.
Participating in a debate on the Union Budget in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, Gandhi, the leader of opposition, alleged that the India-US interim trade deal is a "wholesale surrender", with India's energy security handed over to the US and farmers' interests compromised.
He also alleged that Indian interests have been "surrendered" under the deal to protect the BJP's financial architecture.
Talking to reporters outside the new Parliament building, the former Congress chief further claimed that the names of Puri and industrialist Anil Ambani figured in the "Epstein files".
Addressing a press conference later, Puri slammed Gandhi for "passing innuendo" against him, clarifying that he had met Epstein on a "few occasions", but his interactions with him had nothing to do with the crimes the convicted sex offender was involved in.
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BJP's Pravesh Wahi elected MCD mayor
New Delhi (PTI): BJP councillor from Rohini East, Pravesh Wahi, was elected mayor of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on Wednesday.
Wahi secured 156 votes, with 14 councillors of the Indraprastha Vikas Party backing him. Congress candidate Hazi Zaraf received nine votes.
BJP councillor from Anand Vihar, Monika Pant, was elected deputy mayor with 156 votes.
Jai Bhagwan Yadav from Begumpur and Manish Chadha from Paharganj were elected to the standing committee from the BJP, while AAP councillor Jalaj Chaudhary from Shalimar Bagh was also elected to the MCD panel.
On being elected mayor, Wahi thanked Chief Minister Rekha Gupta and the BJP leadership, saying, "We will clean Delhi in the coming months. We will work for the development of Delhi."
The electoral college for this year's mayoral election comprised 273 votes, including 249 councillors, 14 MLAs nominated by the Delhi Assembly, seven Lok Sabha MPs and three Rajya Sabha members from Delhi. A candidate required 137 votes to win.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) abstained from the mayoral polls. Earlier, the party's Delhi unit president Saurabh Bharadwaj said in a statement that the move would allow the BJP to take charge of the civic body and help AAP "expose" the ruling party on governance.
"Despite having power at all levels, the BJP has failed to bring about any change in Delhi. The BJP does not know how to perform. Only AAP knows how to work," Bharadwaj said.
Earlier, AAP controlled the mayoral post, with Mahesh Kumar Khinchi winning the election in November 2024 by just three votes.
The three civic bodies -- East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC), North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) and South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) -- were reunified into a single entity on May 22, 2022, as the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.
