Smriti Irani, a Union minister, condemned the Congress’ ‘Satyagraha’ march on Monday, which was held to show sympathy with Rahul Gandhi, who is being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate in the National Herald case. The Gandhi family is accused of making a “blatant attempt” to extort money from investigating agencies.
“In the 1930s, Associate Journals Limited was formed with 5,000 freedom fighters as shareholders. Today, a company that was to be run by freedom fighters has been usurped by the Gandhi family,” the minister said.“It is projected that the intent of the AJL was to publish newspapers. However, in 2008, it seemed the company declared it shall no longer publish newspapers but will go into the business of real estate. It is publicly known that the Congress party has waived off a loan of ₹90 crores,” she added.The minister asked the donors who donated the money to Congress, “Did you know that the Congress party instead of utilizing that money for public gain and public service, utilized it to profit the Gandhi family?”
The Congress party had called the ED action “vendetta”. It has termed the charges “fake and baseless” and added that the summonses to the Gandhis was part of the BJP’s “vendetta politics”.
Irani claimed that the Gandhi family gathered people to protect their interests, and that this action spoke volumes about the family’s political nature.
The Union minister’s barb comes amid a flurry of activity in the national capital surrounding Rahul Gandhi’s appearance before the Enforcement Directorate. Several Congress workers have been arrested by the Delhi Police since the morning as they protested.
