New Delhi:The Congress on Tuesday criticised the arrest of Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia by the CBI in the liquor scam, but taunted the Aam Aadmi Party for being silent when ED had earlier questioned the Gandhis in the National Herald case. “It is no secret that the central agencies never visited a BJP leader even though the person faced serious charges. The CBI or ED has not visited Adani so far though we have been raising the issue for a long,” Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said.
“Yes, the Delhi Congress raised voices against the liquor scam. It is surprising that when the Delhi government needed to tackle Covid, it was busy framing a new liquor policy. But, we must also ask why the AAP leaders were silent when the ED questioned our leadership. We are saying that there can be no justification for such action now. That is because we have morality. Staying silent when opposition leaders are being targeted is no more a choice,” she said.
The Congress leader was referring to the ED’s questioning of former party chief Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi last year in the National Herald case. Though other opposition parties had spoken against the alleged misuse of central agencies, the AAP had refrained from joining the issue. The Congress and the AAP are rivals in Delhi and Punjab where the new party has taken the votes of the grand old party over the past eight years.
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Therefore, though the Congress and the AAP have been together targeting the Centre inside Parliament, outside the two slam each other. “We were the first to raise corruption in the Delhi liquor policy. It was due to our persistent action that the Delhi LG asked the CBI to probe into the scam. The Delhi government had changed the earlier policy framed under the Congress government,” Delhi Congress chief Anil Kumar told ETV Bharat. Similarly, former Delhi MP Sandeep Dikshit, too, slammed the AAP.
“When there was a Congress government in Delhi the AAP leaders used to make baseless charges against it. Later, when they came to power, they failed to take any action as they had no proof. They just misled people. They staged a protest when the CBI called Sisodia for questioning. What was the need? Ultimately, the courts would decide on the charges. Why are they making a show over it,” Sandeep said.
The Congress-led opposition has been raising the issue of targeting opposition leaders by various agencies over the past few years as it questioned the low conviction rate of the ED. “The opposition is united. Sometimes regional factors affect the position of parties it would be wrong to say that the opposition has differences. When the time comes, this unity will show their strength. They can expunge the remarks of our leaders in Parliament, but we will keep raising the Adani issue,” she said. Recently, Congress veteran Jairam Ramesh, too, had slammed the Centre over the arrest of Sisodia.
