On Thursday, as the Congress President Sonia Gandhi appeared before the ED in the National Herald newspaper money laundering case, the Congress workers staged protests calling ED’s action against its top leadership a ‘political vendetta’. The party leaders gathered for the demonstration at the AICC headquarters in New Delhi and hoisted slogans and rallies extending support to Gandhi.
According to the reports, the Congress workers also staged protests in Parliament and requested the opposition parties to join the protest in solidarity. During the protests, the Congress workers and supporters were seen calling the Modi-led government ‘goons’ as they raised slogans saying, “Gundagardi nahi chalegi, Gundagardi band karo (Hooliganism will not be tolerated, stop hooliganism)”.
The Congress leaders and supporters were also seen holding the posters in support of Sonia Gandhi. The slongans printed on the posters accused the BJP led government of misusing the power. “Sach se BJP darti hai, ED ko age karti hai (BJP is scared of truth, so it orders ED to act)”, some of the posters read. The other posters meanwhile showcased clear support to Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
Reportedly, on July 21, the opposition parties including the CPI(M), DMK, RJD, Shiv Sena, RSP, and more issued a joint statement alleging that the Modi government was misusing the central agencies to deliberately target the opposition party members. “Modi govt has unleashed a relentless vendetta against political opponents through misuse of investigative agencies by targeting prominent leaders of various parties. We will intensify our fight against the anti-people Modi Sarkar”, the letter read.
The joint statement also called the Modi government anti-farmer and anti-Constitution and alleged that the Central Government was destroying the social fabric of the society.
This is a day after Jairam Ramesh, AICC general secretary in charge of media declared that the whole party would protest in support of Sonia Gandhi in “a most telling manner” across the country. “Tomorrow as the political vendetta unleashed by the Modi-Shah duo against our top leadership continues, the entire Congress party across the country will demonstrate its collective solidarity with Smt. Sonia Gandhi in a most telling manner,” he said on Twitter.
A meeting of top party officials was also convened yesterday at Mallikarjun Kharge’s house to plan the party’s response to the ED summons to Sonia Gandhi. “The whole Congress family is standing strong with its president Sonia Gandhi, and a protest against the dictatorial rule of the BJP will be registered throughout the entire country tomorrow,” the party had stated on Twitter on Wednesday.
Reports mention that the Congress leaders and workers have also planned to stage protests outside the offices of the ED in other state capitals. Previously, when Rahul Gandhi appeared before the ED, Congress officials and workers, including party MPs had protested. Massive protests were executed in the states of Maharashtra, Punjab, Delhi, Rajasthan and more where the protestors had claimed that the Central government was trying to silence the opposition by sending ED notices in ‘fake cases’.
Rahul Gandhi was questioned by ED on June 13 for over 6 hours and his statement was recorded under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The ED had recorded the statements of all those involved in the case, with the exception of Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. The agency however had issued summoned to Congress president Sonia Gandhi on July 11 for recording her statement on July 21.
The National Herald scam is one of the most notable legal cases in Indian history, as the Gandhis are directly accused. The Mother-Son duo of Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul, along with their aides – Oscar Fernandez, Motilal Vohra and Sam Pithroda are alleged to have been involved in massive ‘cheating and breach of trust’ in the acquisition of Associated Journals Ltd (AJL) by Young Indian Pvt Ltd (YIL). Assets worth crores of rupees had been allegedly transferred for purposes other than originally intended for a paltry sum. Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi had got unconditional bail in December 2015.