Jaipur (Rajasthan): Coming down heavily on Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over ED notice to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case, the grand old party said that the BJP to divert the people's attention from employment and skyrocketing prices of essential commodities, often bring to the fore such issues just as a pressure tactic. "But, the Congress party will not bow down to such pressure tactics. The party will boldly face the situation and also expose the saffron party," said Gourav Vallabh, Congress party national spokesperson.
Elaborating on the BJP's model of governance, the Congress spokesperson said the BJP's model of governance is based on 3-D. "The 3-D means distract, divert and distort. The BJP takes the route of distraction, diversion and also presenting the facts in a distorted manner. They (BJP) also create issues artificially. But, the 3-D policy never worked in the country previously and it will not work in the National Herald issue also." The state unit of Congress leaders will stage sit-ins in front of the ED office across the country on Monday to voice their concerns.
Read: ED issues fresh summons to Rahul Gandhi for June 13
The contribution of the National Herald newspaper to India's freedom movement could be gauged from the fact that, it was established by leaders like Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Sadar Vallabhbhai Patel, Acharya Narendra Devi, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai and Purushottam Das Tandon in 1937, said Gourav, adding, "The purpose of setting up of the newspaper was to uproot the British rule in the country. During the Quit India Movement, the Britishers banned the newspaper from 1942 to 1945." When the British regime imposed a ban on the National Herald, Congress spokesperson, Gourav, said, "At that time Bapu had called the ban on National Herald a huge setback and disaster for the country."
Speaking further, he said that such was the importance of this newspaper. "The National Herald was known for its best editorial writings, But, even then the English daily remained a loss-making entity. The company Associated Journals Limited runs this newspaper." "Hence, the Congress gave away Rs 90 crore loans as bailout package; keeping its book of accounts transparent and known to all, to the company Associated Journals Limited to run the newspaper. Then, the Associated Journals Limited was not in a position to repay loans to the Congress party. Therefore, the company asked the party to take equities."
"But the Congress was not supposed to take even equity also. Therefore, Not For Profit company was floated. And this was not a new thing, thousands of political parties in India, including the BJP, did that. So, there was not any illegality. Not a single penny went out. The Election Commission was kept in the loop. The procedure was followed as per the EC guidelines. So, where was the illegality in the entire transaction."
