New Delhi: The Congress on Tuesday lashed out at BJP over the renewed political offensive in the National Herald case, questioning the timing of the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) charge sheet filed after 11 years and calling the allegations “baseless and politically motivated.”
The ED filed a prosecution complaint on April 9 against former Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, and several others.
The charge sheet alleges money laundering linked to proceeds of crime amounting to Rs 5,000 crore, paving the way for the framing of criminal charges and a possible trial.
The special MP/MLA court in Delhi has set April 25 as the next date for hearing, to decide on whether to take cognisance of the charge sheet, a move that marks a critical moment in the long-running case against the Gandhis and their close associates.
Congress National Spokesperson Supriya Shrinate called the ED’s charge sheet “fake” and accused the Modi government of weaponising investigating agencies for political vendetta.
Speaking to IANS, she said, “The entire case of National Herald has been based on fake and baseless arguments. The reality is that the charge sheet of the ED imposes such a charge of money laundering in that case where there was not a single penny transaction, not a single transfer, not a transfer of ownership.”
Elaborating on the background of the case, Shrinate explained, “AJL is the company which used to publish National Herald, which during Independence emerged as the voice of the nation. This company later incurred a loan and the Congress party gave a loan of Rs 90 crore through 100 bank transactions and cheques. As the government itself does in NCLT, the debt was transferred to equity, converted and a new company Young Indian was formed.”
“Young Indian is a not-for-profit company. Its four shareholders are Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Oscar Fernandes and Motilal Vora. Since Young Indian is a not-for-profit company, it cannot give a single penny to its shareholders as a dividend or profit,” she further said.
Shrinate accused the BJP government of peddling lies. “What is the charge of the government? We did not hide the loan; we revealed it to everyone. We are not like the BJP, which is running businesses through electoral bonds. So it seems to me that the BJP does not have any facts and any proof, and despite not having that, it is filing such a fake charge sheet,” she said.
Questioning the delay in action, Shrinate said, “The BJP has been in power for 11 years; you filed the charge sheet now? If you had so much proof, you would have filed the charge sheet earlier. The reality is that you do not have even single data by which you could prove any wrongdoing, and everybody knows this.”
Meanwhile, the Congress also took strong objection to BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj’s gesture of carrying a tote bag with the slogan ‘National Herald Ki Loot’ written on it to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) meeting on ‘One Nation, One Election’.
The move, which grabbed headlines, was seen as a calculated political message against the Congress party.
Congress Rajya Sabha MP Rashid Alvi responded strongly, criticising the BJP MP for indulging in what he termed “bag politics.”
“She is the daughter of Sushma Swaraj. Maybe the BJP gave her a ticket because she is Sushma Swaraj’s daughter. Instead of doing this bag politics, she should become a good parliamentarian like her mother. She cannot become a parliamentarian by carrying a bag on her shoulder and doing bag politics,” he told IANS.
“She is still young. My advice to her is to learn to speak like her highly respected mother, learn to work hard like her mother, and try to become a good parliamentarian like her mother, instead of getting entangled in these small issues like other BJP leaders. If you get entangled like this, you will not be able to move forward,” Alvi added.
(IANS)
