New Delhi, February 14 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 also 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", Pawan Khera, head of the Congress's media and publicity department, 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."
Sam Pitroda, Congress's overseas department head, was also 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.
