Rahul Gandhi to appear before ED on Monday; Congress to hold protests
Top Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) here on Monday on a summons in the National Herald case, with the party all set to make it a political battle with senior leaders marching with him to the agency's office.
Simultaneously, Congress workers will also stage 'satyagrahas' infront of ED offices in states to protest the "political vendetta" against Rahul and the "misuse" of central investigation agencies by the Narendra Modi government.
Congress also held press conferences fielding prominent faces in Lucknow (Sachin Pilot), Raipur (Vivek Thanka), Shimla (Sanjay Nirupam), Ranjeet Ranjan (Chandigarh), Pawan Khera (Ahmedabad) and Alka Lamba (Dehradun), targeting the Modi dispensation.
Rahul was earlier asked to appear before the agency on June 2 but he sought more time, as he was out of the country. Following this, he was asked to appear before the agency on Monday.
His mother and Congress president Sonia Gandhi was asked to appear on June 8 but it has been rescheduled to June 23 as she tested positive for Covid-19.
Party leaders said senior leaders, including Congress Working Committee members and MPs, will walk with Rahul to the ED office in the morning in a show of solidarity and send a message that Rahul and the party were "not scared and will not be scared".
The case pertains to the ED probe into the alleged financial irregularities in the party-promoted Young Indian Ltd in which Sonia and Rahul are majority shareholders. In April, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress Treasurer Pawan Bansal were questioned separately in the case.
This is the first time an investigating agency has summoned Sonia or Rahul in a case. The Congress is planning to make it a political fight of truth against vendetta politics, as it is a “weird case” in which “money laundering is alleged even as no money is involved”, party leaders said earlier.
Congress spokesperson Khera said in Ahmedabad, "there is not an iota of illegal activity. Despite this, Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi were served notices by the ED out of political vendetta, with the aim to gain some headlines for a week. We should learn from PM Narendra Modi how to manage headlines. Our leaders will honour the ED notice and will go to its office with pride and fearlessness because they have not done anything wrong."
Khera alleged that the BJP was spending large amounts of money to malign Rahul's image. "Rahul Gandhi will not get cowed down," he said.
He said that Congress provided Rs 90 crore loan to Associated Journals Ltd, which runs National Herald, and later the debt was converted into equity and a not-for-profit company was formed with Rahul and Sonia as stakeholders among others.
"Even when BJP leader Subramanian Swamy wrote to the Election Commision highlighting this, it conveyed to him that there was nothing illegal in this...Since it was a not-for-profit company, the board directors were not entitled for a salary, share of dividends and profits, and so, there was nothing illegal in it," he said.
In Chandigarh, newly-elected Rajya Sabha MP Ranjeet Ranjan claimed that the BJP was trying to silence the Opposition.
Countering the Congress, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said in Bhubaneswar, "both Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are on bail. Rahul Gandhi is supposed to appear before the ED on Monday. But Congress is making a huge drama out of it. They are calling all their leaders to Delhi. What is the use of all this drama?"
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