Cong protests continue, MPs call on Naidu, Birla
NEW DELHI: The Congress on Thursday continued protests in several parts of the country, including Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, Punjab, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, and Rajasthan, against the Enforcement Directorate’s questioning of party leader Rahul Gandhi in connection with its money laundering probe linked to the National Herald newspaper. Meanwhile, Congress MPs called on Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and the Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu seeking their intervention into alleged the manhandling of several of its parliamentarians during the course of their protests.
The central agency, over a period of three days, recorded the statement of Rahul Gandhi about the acquisition of Associated Journals Ltd (AJL) by Young Indian Private Ltd (YI), in which he is a 38% shareholder; operations of National Herald; a loan of Rs 90.21 crore given by the All India Congress Committee (AICC) to AJL; and transactions related to the development of a property in Mumbai. Gandhi is the first member of the Nehru-Gandhi family to be questioned in the case.
Gandhi was questioned by the ED for nearly 10 hours on Monday, 11 hours on Tuesday and 10 hours on Wednesday. He has been asked to rejoin the probe on Friday by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in connection with the National Herald case, said people familiar with the matter.To protest against the ED questioning, Congress workers have been observing protests across the country since June 13, during which several MPs and senior party leaders were briefly detained.
On Thursday, Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar, CLP leader Siddaramaiah and other leaders and workers of the party were detained by the police during their protest in Bengaluru.
“The protest is our right. We will fight for justice. They (ED) are not taking cases of any BJP leaders. They are harassing only Congress people,” Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar told ANI.
Bengaluru Police said the Congress protest was against the High Court’s order. “High Court had earlier ordered that protests will not be held anywhere except Freedom Park. We conveyed it to them. They gave us in writing about protest but we rejected it. We conveyed it to them in the morning too. If they proceed, we will take them into preventive custody,” Bheemashankar S Guled, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Bengaluru East told ANI.
In Delhi, Congress workers were faced with water cannons during a march to Lieutenant Governor’s house they held to decry the Delhi Police for “entering the Congress headquarters” and “thrashing” the party leaders inside. “State president Anil Kumar fainted and suffered injuries after Delhi police resorted to water cannons at the protest,” party officials said.
Congress leaders have been raising the issue of alleged ill-treatment of party lawmakers, including some women, by the Delhi Police during their protests. On Thursday, a party delegation led by the party’s leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury called on LS Speaker and narrated how some party MPs were allegedly dragged by the Delhi Police and that her clothes “were torn”. “We met the Speaker and raised the issue of the manner in which our MPs and leaders were treated by the Delhi police and sought action against the accused police officers,” Chowdhury told reporters after the meeting.
A separate delegation of Congress’s Rajya Sabha MPs met Chairman Venkaiah Naidu at his residence and brought to his notice the “violations of privileges” of MPs by the Delhi Police. The delegation was led by Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge and had senior Congress leaders such as P Chidambaram, Jairam Ramesh and KC Venugopal.
Congress workers also held a protest in Chandigarh against the questioning of Rahul Gandhi by ED. Several workers of the party were detained by police.
“I cannot understand what has Rahul Gandhi done that he has been called for 3 days? Yesterday, Delhi Police barged into AICC office and beat up our MPs. Such vendetta politics has never been seen before. Government should not try to suppress voices,” Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Warring. “We will continue protesting. We were going to Raj Bhavan. Congress party stands with Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. We will not step back. We will not be scared,” said a Congress worker.
Congress workers also staged a demonstration in Hyderabad, Chennai and Jaipur.