Akhilesh slams Centre as RaGa’s Day 3 at ED gets underway
Rahul Gandhi reached the ED office in the national capital for the third consecutive day for questioning, the SP chief came down sharply on the BJP government.
Lucknow: Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday slammed the Modi government at the Centre for using central probe agency, the Enforcement Directorate, as a tool for examination of the opposition.
As former Congress president Rahul Gandhi reached the ED office in the national capital for the third consecutive day for questioning in the National Herald case, the SP chief came down sharply on the BJP government.
After over 22 hours of questioning in the first two days amid steep protests by the grand old party in Delhi and other states, Gandhi was summoned to the financial probe agency’s office while his mother and party president Sonia Gandhi continued to be under observation at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital following Covid-19.
Without naming Rahul or the Congress, the Samajwadi leader tweeted in Hindi that roughly translated to calling the ‘ED’ of Enforcement Directorate as ‘Examination in Democracy’ under Modi’s rule.
And this is an examination that the government announces when it “itself fails”, Akhilesh said.
“In politics, the opposition has to pass this examination. The government announces this examination when it fails itself. Those who are well prepared need not worry,” he said.
Akhilesh added, all those who are well prepared “neither should worry about the written test nor the oral”.
The ED issued summons to both Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and son Rahul in the PMLA case connected to National Herald newspaper’s fate and alleged misappropriation of its funds.
The ED is recording statements under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act for “misappropriating” Associated Journals’ assets “worth over Rs 2,000 crore” for “only Rs 50 lakh”.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy had accused the Gandhis of misusing party funds to buy a firm Associated Journals Limited (AJL) that published the now-defunct National Herald newspaper. A charge that the Gandhis have continued to deny, saying there has been no financial impropriety.
