Cong, BJP trade barbs; protests erupt as ED questions Rahul
HT Correspondent
NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED)’S questioning of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case triggered a political slugfest on Monday as party leaders lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Centre and accused them of misusing central agencies.
The BJP hit back, accusing Congress leaders of putting pressure on the central agency, supporting corruption and protecting the Gandhi family’s financial assets.
“The impasse that Congress leaders and workers are doing today on the call of Rahul Gandhi, I would like to tell the country that this is not an attempt to save democracy, but an attempt to protect the assets of the Gandhi family,” Union minister Smriti Irani said.
Several Congress workers and leaders, including former Union minister P Chidambaram, party general secretary K C Venugopal, Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot, Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, Randeep Singh Surjewala and newlyelected MP Pramod Tiwari, were detained as they tried to leave the party headquarters in Delhi for a “satyagrah” march to the ED office despite being denied police permission.
“The manner in which 6-7 years-old cases against Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi were taken up, it is evident that politics of putting pressure on political opponents is being played,” Gehlot told reporters.
Chidambaram said three “big, burly” policemen crashed into him and he was lucky to get away with a “suspected hairline crack”. Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury also alleged violence by police personnel on the way to the ED office and wrote a letter to the Tughlaq Road station house officer in this regard.
Baghel accused the Modi government of “misusing” investigative agencies to “suppress the voice of the Opposition”.
“The whole nation is witnessing the ruling party’s dictatorship,” he said.
The ED summoned Rahul Gandhi and his mother, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, in a money laundering probe linked to the National Herald newspaper. Sonia
Gandhi is expected to appear before the ED on June 23.
The Congress has continuously refuted allegations of money laundering against the two leaders and described the ED move as part of the government’s larger plan of “Congress-mukt Bharat”.
Congress leaders planned a massive show-of-strength in Delhi but were thwarted by the police. Party leaders also held demonstrations in other cities.
Surjewala accused the Bjp-led Union government of imposing an “undeclared emergency” in the entire central Delhi area. “By deploying a large police force, it has been proven that the Modi government is shaken by Congress,” Surjewala said.
Chidambaram condemned the police action. “When three big, burly policemen crash into you, you are lucky to get away with a suspected hairline crack! Doctors have said that if there is a hairline crack, it will heal by itself in about 10 days. I am fine and I will go about my work tomorrow,” he tweeted.
In his letter to SHO Tughlaq Road, Chowdhury said: “This is to intimate you that today I have been badly manhandled by the Delhi Police... without even an iota of provocation. During the phase of police atrocities, I got an injury in the upper jaw of my mouth. May I request you to treat my letter as an allegation against those police personnel and do the needful.”
The BJP, however, alleged that Congress leaders decided to take to the streets to pressurise an investigating agency openly because their corruption had been exposed. Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan took potshots at the Gandhis.
“Righteousness is an essential constituent of ‘Satyagraha’ not entitlement. ‘Champions of Corruption’ have yet again sullied the Gandhian philosophy of Satyagraha by linking it to justify acts of money laundering and corruption of the family,” he tweeted.
“Juvenile optics and resource mobilisation for creating a hostage like situation for the investigating agencies will not deviate the spotlight from the corruption of ‘The Family.’ Law will take its own course irrespective of the roadblocks being engineered by @Incindia,” he added.