Chandigarh: Senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha Member Ranjeet Ranjan today alleged that the Enforcement Directorate summons issued to the Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi was the Bharatiya Janata Party government’s tactic to muzzle the voice of opposition and divert public attention from pressing issues like inflation, unemployment, deteriorating security situation in Kashmir and social disharmony.
Addressing a press conference here today, Ranjan said, the ED summons were legally and technically untenable as no case can be made since there was no transaction of money anywhere. Referring to the National Herald case, she said, the Congress party had bailed out the National Herald newspaper, which was running in huge losses. She said, of the Rs 90 crores, Rs 67 crores were paid to employees as VRS and gratuity and remaining amount was paid as rent, electricity charge and some amount was also paid to the government, which the company owed to it.
The Congress leader clarified that the Young India was only acting as the protector and its directors had not taken a single penny from it. Since there was no cash transaction of any kind, there is no question of money laundering which the government is trying to make out. Ranjan said, it was a clear case of vendetta and harassment as the BJP’s policy is to either make people join it or unleash various central agencies like the CBI and ED on their political opponents.
She pointed out, how one Bengal leader who faced several cases got clean chit after joining the BJP. She stated that the Congress party and its leaders cannot be cowed down by such harassment. “We will face it legally while at the same time will not let you off the hook and will continue to oppose and expose you”, she told the BJP, adding, the Congress party will keep on maintaining its pressure on the government and draw public attention towards its wrong doings.
The Congress MP pointed out, how leaders from the opposition parties like the Congress, the Shiv Sena, the DMK, TMC and the Nationalist Congress Party were selectively being targeted and harassed by misusing the CBI and ED. She mentioned several names of the opposition leaders who, she alleged, were being harassed and intimidated by the ED. Ranjan alleged that the BJP governments both at the centre and in various states were tainted with multiple scams and it was trying to implicate opposition leaders to divert public attention from those scams like the Vyapam scam, seizure of drugs worth thousands of crores from the port owned by their favourite Adani, PPE kit scam, lockdown scam, Gujarat Mask scam, iron ore scam, loan scam where banks were defrauded of thousands of crores of rupees, PM Cares Fund scam, just to name a few.
