The central government's order of a probe into transactions of trusts linked to the Nehru-Gandhi family is a "natural" outcome of information brought out in the public domain recently, the BJP said on Wednesday.
BJP general secretary P Muralidhar Rao also rejected the charge that the government's decision is politically motivated, saying it would not have waited for six years had this been true.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government came to power in 2014 and won mandate for a second term in 2019.
"These transactions are in public domain...Our government is committed to transparency. It is natural to investigate these transactions after so much information was recently brought out in public domain," Rao told reporters.
He said the Congress leadership should cooperate with the investigation.
Hours after the government initiated a probe into the funding of three Nehru-Gandhi family linked trusts, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi hit out at Modi and said those who fight for the truth cannot be intimidated.
"Mr Modi believes the world is like him. He thinks everyone has a price or can be intimidated. He will never understand that those who fight for the truth have no price and cannot be intimidated," Gandhi said in a tweet.
An inter-ministerial team has been set up by the government to coordinate probe into the alleged violation of various laws like money laundering and foreign contributions by three Nehru-Gandhi family linked trusts, including the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF).
The development comes after the BJP, led by its president J.P. Nadda, launched a fierce attack on the Congress leadership over alleged donations to the RGF from the Chinese Embassy and sought clarification from it.
At the press conference, Rao also took potshots at Rahul Gandhi, saying he has been trying to projet himself as a "wise man" even though people have "rejected" him time and again.
If the BJP listens to him, it will also be "rejected", he added.
His jibe at Rahul Gandhi came after the Congress leader alleged that small and medium enterprises stand "destroyed" and large companies are under severe stress, claiming that he had warned of an "economic tsunami" in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rao said the government has made its stand clear on issues ranging from economic challenges to the border row with China but, he added in a dig at the Congress, a "blind person cannot be shown the light".
He claimed that the BJP played the role of a responsible opposition during India's wars with Pakistan in 1965 and 1971, and with China in 1962.
It was the Jana Sangh which was in existence all those years before its leaders broke away from the Janata Party and formed the Bharatiya Janata Party in 1980.
