Congress slams govt over Arnab-BAARC WhatsApp saga

Congress' top senior leaders and former Union Ministers AK Antony, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Sushil Kumar Shinde and Salman Khurshid addressed a press conference, where they said the party will raise this issue in the upcoming Parliament session, demanding an inquiry on the leaking of information pertaining to Balakot airstrike.

New Delhi: Congress party on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on Narendra Modi-led central government over the WhatsApp chats of Republic TV's editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami and former BARC CEO Partho Dasgupta saying that leaking official secrets of military operations is a "treason" and an "anti-national activity".

Congress' top senior leaders and former Union Ministers AK Antony, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Sushil Kumar Shinde and Salman Khurshid addressed a press conference, where they informed that party will raise this issue in the upcoming Parliament session, demanding an inquiry on the leaking of information pertaining to Balakot airstrike.

"Leaking official secret is a criminal act. Leaking information relating to military operations is treason, an anti-national activity. Whoever is responsible for this leakage must be punished. An enquiry should be done on a war footing. Those involved deserve no mercy," said ex-defence minister AK Antony.

Antony also stated that he is sure no military officer would leak such sensitive information to a journalist or the like, and only one of the civilians in the top positions of the Government could have been behind this.

Sushil Kumar Shinde informed that Congress is going to raise this matter in Parliament while asserting his confidence that an immediate enquiry will be conducted to punish the people involved.

Raising another concern, Ghulam Nabi Azad said, "In 2017, Arnab Goswami's channel bypassed the auction system put in place by Prasar Bharati to gain viewership on DD Free Dish. The channel did not pay the fee to book slots in the free DTH service with the help of Dish TV. This violation cost crores of Rupees to the public exchequer. However, the then I&B Minister Rajyavardhan Rathore buried the complaints against it."

"What is important is the nexus between the central government and a journalist. The government should rise to the occasion and take action against him. But if the Government itself is involved then it is a much bigger matter," he added.

In addition to this, Salman Khurshid raised concerns over the judicial system of the country, saying, "From the conversation, one can see the worse examples of influence peddling and attempts to influence the judiciary. The entire country depends on the temples of justice to seek redressal for their grievances. If powerful people of the country are seen influencing judiciary, the faith of common citizen will stand eroded in the judicial delivery system."

Mentioning about the instance from the WhatsApp chats where Goswami was discussing about former Union Minister Arun Jaitley, the Congress leader said, "He was battling for life at the hospital in the month of August. In the most inhumane display of insensitivity, Arnab Goswami says that why "Jaitley is stretching it" as "PM has to go to France".

He further claimed that they were "maintaining him". It is deeply saddened."

Pawan Khera, who was also present in the press briefing, attacked the government saying, "Was Arnab controlling the Center or Center controlling Arnab? Both situations are dangerous for democracy."

"Does the Prime Minister, Home Minister have any moral, political, constitutional right to continue in office after such damning revelations? We demand that the Prime Minister should come clean on these accusations," he demanded.