Cong protests against ED summons to Rahul, Sonia

NT Correspondent
Bengaluru

Karnataka Pradesh Congress Com­mittee (KPCC) staged a protest against the Enforcement Directorate (ED) summons issued to Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, alleging harass­ment by the Central govern­ment.

The protests were organ­ised on the day former par­ty president Rahul Gandhi made an appearance at the ED office in New Delhi in the National Herald money laundering case.

Among the protesters were KPCC president DK Shivakumar, Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Siddaramaiah, apart from other leaders who accused the BJPled Centre of “ven­detta politics.” They tried to take out a march from L a l Bagh to the ED of­fice, but were detained by the police in the pro­cess.

“This is a historic strug­gle. National Herald pub­lication was launched by the party that brought this country independence to create awareness among people. Our party’s views are wel l known. It is a party that produced the likes of Jawa­harlal Nehru, Balgangadhar Tilak and Vallabhai Patel,” Shivakumar said.

“Thousands of leaders went to jail in the freedom struggle. Several of them sacrificed their lives in the process. National Herald raised their voice against all of this. It is still alive. It was then taken forward by Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Os­car Fernandes and Motilal Vohra. Now Mallikarjun Kharge is the trustee,” he added.

“The income tax depart­ment has examined the fi­nancial affairs of the paper. Congress members from all over the country have donat­ed to the paper. As many as Rs 90 crores have been donat­ed by the Congress party. In­come tax returns have been filed in this regard and the income tax department also says the returns are sound. However, this BJP govern­ment has still filed financial irregularity cases against Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi,” Shivakumar said.

Siddaramaiah said that the case reflected the misuse of institutions by the BJP government. “Ever since Modi government came to power, all hitherto indepen­dent institutions have be­come puppets in the hands of the government. This includes the RBI (Reserve Bank Of India), CBI (Cen­tral Bureau of Investiga­tion), ED, and NSI (National Survey of Indian Arts). The income tax department and the ED have been let loose on the Opposition. Never in the history of the country have we seen such misuse of the institutions,” he said