Congress on streets to protect Gandhi family's assets, says Smriti Irani

Smriti Irani said that by holding mass protests, Congress was indulging in pressure tactics to force investigating agencies

As Congress leaders hit the streets on Monday in support of Rahul Gandhi as he appeared with the Enforcement Directorate, the Bharatiya Janata Party said that the support is for corruption and to allegedly protect over Rs 2,000 crore in assets of the Gandhi family.

The party fielded senior leaders and Union Minister Smriti Irani and Rajeev Chandrasekhar to take on Gandhi in separate press briefings at the party headquarters.

Irani said that by holding mass protests, Congress was indulging in pressure tactics to force investigating agencies.

“Never before has any political family in India has tried investigative agencies to ransom so that they can protect their ill-gotten wealth,” the minister for women and child development said. “No one is above the law, not even Rahul Gandhi.”

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She added that in the ED case, the Gandhis transferred the ownership of the Associated Journals Limited (AJL), a newspaper publication company founded in 1930, which previously had 5,000 freedom fighters as shareholders. She alleged that the company is now in real estate.

“This company had incurred debts of Rs 90 crore in 2008 and decided that it would enter the property business. Another company named Young India was constituted in 2010 with an initial capital of Rs 5 lakh and Rahul Gandhi was made its Director,” Irani said.

She said that Gandhi now holds 75 per cent stake in the company, while his mother Sonia Gandhi and Congress leaders Motilal Vora and Oscar Fernandes are owners of the remaining shares.

“Nine crore shares of AJL, which is 99 per cent of the total shares, are then transferred to Young India. Congress party then gave Rs 90 crore as a loan to AJL which doesn't need to be returned,” she said.

“AJL is now not a company that does social work. It has a license under section 25 of the Companies Act at the time of its founding under which it can only do charity work. But in 2016, Young India accepted that it hadn't done any charity work in the six years of its existence,” she further said.

In another press conference, Union Minister of State for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that Gandhi has “redefined” the concept of satyagraha.

“Eminent personalities like DK Shivakumar, KC Venugopal and P Chidambaram have flocked to Delhi to protest in favour of a man who has committed an economic offence,” Chandrasekhar said. “They have redefined satyagrah a to come in support of economic corruption.”