The Congress on Saturday invoked a list of “thugs, imposters, swindlers and scamsters” who it said were flourishing under the patronage of the Narendra Modi government, while party president Mallikarjun Kharge said the entire country was now aware of the Prime Minister’s double standard on corruption.

This appeared a retort to Modi, who has been portraying Opposition politicians as corrupt at his public meetings, and recently said: “The Congress is a guarantee for corruption while Modi is a guarantee for action against corruption.”

Kharge used Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification to target Modi over corruption.

“Rahul Gandhi fights for the truth and will continue to do so. The truth is that the likes of Lalit Modi, Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, Vijay Mallya, Jatin Mehta looted India and ran away despite being under the watch of the Modi government. The BJP freed them but conspired to throw Rahul Gandhi out of Parliament,” he said.

Rahul had mentioned some of these names while asking why “all thieves” seemed to have the surname Modi, a comment that led to his conviction for criminal defamation and two-year sentence, and consequent disqualification as MP.

“The corrupt escape from India under his government and Modi, on the other hand, includes tainted leaders by cleaning them in (the) BJP washing machine. That’s the BJP’s ‘Swachh Bharat’ campaign aimed at consolidating power,” Kharge said.

“But the country has now thoroughly understood Modi’s double standard on corruption. No Congress leader will get frightened by the political conspiracy to frame them.”

Shortly after Modi’s claim about being a “guarantee” against corruption, his party had inducted politicians such as Ajit Pawar, Praful Patel and Chhagan Bhujbal who face allegations of involvement in corruption involving thousands of crores.

The Congress has now rubbed the message in by spotlighting a network of alleged fraudsters who purportedly thrived by claiming links to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) or BJP leaders.

“Are thugs, blackmailers, bluff masters, imposters, swindlers and scamsters ruling the roost under the Modi government?” party media department head Pawan Khera said at a news conference.

“Or is the so-called ‘supreme leader’ blissfully unaware of these fraudsters? They threaten the Opposition with daily ED-CBI raids but have no time to rein in their own network of fraudsters?”

Khera mentioned Kiran Patel, accused of taking the entire Jammu and Kashmir administration for a ride posing as a PMO official, and Sanjay Sherpuria, charged with cheating people out of Rs 350 crore by exploiting his alleged proximity to Modi and other RSS-BJP leaders.

“Many other thugs are thriving in the Sangh Parivar ecosystem, looting people by claiming to be either in the PMO or close to home minister Amit Shah or BJP president J.P. Nadda,” Khera said.

“Neeraj Singh Rathod, who claims to be ‘Nadda’s personal assistant’, operated among BJP MLAs in Maharashtra, Haryana, Delhi, West Bengal and Jharkhand by specialising in brokering cabinet berths for aspiring ministers.

“In May, 2023, he was arrested by the Nagpur police on charges of taking money from three BJP MLAs (against) a promise of ministerial berths. Yash Ameen aka Viraj Shah, (who) claimed to be Amit Shah’s nephew and sold ministerships and other positions to BJP leaders, was arrested in 2016.”

Khera named many others, including Brajesh Rattan, son of a BJP leader who allegedly cheated a Mumbai businessman by claiming to be close to Shah and promising a railway contract; Ankit Kumar Singh, accused of posing as a secretary in the PMO and arrested in January this year; Vasudev Nivtuti Tayde, accused of pretending to be a deputy secretary in the PMO; and Satyendra Prakash Chaturvedi, who allegedly claimed to be an IAS officer posted in the PMO.

Khera asked whether there wasn’t a set pattern to this thuggery and claimed that all the accused were part of the RSS-BJP ecosystem.

The Congress has accused Modi of weakening the legal framework for fighting corruption ever since he took over as Prime Minister in 2014.

The party issued a white paper in 2017 alleging the Whistle Blowers Protection Act and the Prevention of Corruption Act were being diluted, the Lokpal was not being appointed on flimsy excuses, and that the electoral bond scheme had been introduced to facilitate non-transparent political funding.

Along with NGOs and activists, the Congress has repeatedly accused the Modi government of strangling the Right to Information Act.

The Opposition has demanded inquiries into the multiple financial scams alleged at the Centre and in BJP-ruled states. While several financial scandals have been investigated in the states, charges relating to central BJP leaders have not been probed.

The Congress has directly pointed a finger at Modi in connection with controversies involving the Rafale aircraft deal, the Adani group, the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation, GIFT City, ILFS and the Sahara-Birla diaries.

The party has asked questions about the role of Union ministers Nitin Gadkari and Piyush Goyal in connection with, respectively, corruption allegations against the Purti group and bank “haircuts”.

The late Sushma Swaraj was accused of helping fugitives from Indian law in her capacity as foreign minister, and the late Arun Jaitley had faced questions relating to graft allegations against the Delhi and District Cricket Association.

BJP governments in states such as Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh have been embroiled in scandals relating to government recruitment (Vyapam), mining, e-tendering, rice, alleged bribery to clear contractors’ bills, and land allotment.