New Delhi: The Congress on Monday termed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids on several party leaders in Chhattisgarh as “third-rate vendetta politics” and said such raids would not intimidate the party. The party wondered why no similar action had been taken against the Adani Group.
“What we saw this morning is an example of third-rate politics…it is political vendetta. We will not be intimidated by any such action. The PM is quiet over issues like Chinese incursions and the Adani-Hindenburg controversy but sends the ED to Congress leaders just days before the Plenary Session,” said Jairam Ramesh, Congress in-charge of communication.
“We have nothing to hide. The raids started at 5 am and we don’t know for how long these would continue. The raids have come just three days before our Plenary Session. Most of our leaders will start reaching Raipur on February 23 and the Plenary will go on as planned from February 24,” he said. Ramesh claimed the raids took place as the successful Bharat Jodo Yatra had “shook the government” and the Congress continued questioning over the Adani-Hindenburg issue over the past days.
Congress media head Pawan Khera said the ED works at “Eliminating Democracy” and warned the government over the action in Chhattisgarh. “The ED has a new name and new work in the Modi government--eliminating democracy. We, too, are in power in some states. Don’t take our decency as our weakness,” he said.
Read also: ED conducts fresh raids Congress leaders in coal levy scam ahead of party's plenary session
“You raid media houses when they raise questions. You remove parts of speeches of opposition leaders when they raise the Adani issue in Parliament. Why no action has been taken against the Adani Group?” he asked. The Congress leaders pointed out that ED had earlier questioned former party chiefs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and incumbent chief Mallikarjun Kharge in the National Herald case and was mostly acting against opposition leaders, but several politicians, who were facing corruption charges became clean after joining the BJP.
He said that leaders like Himanta Biswa Sarma, Mukul Roy, Suvendu Adhikari, BS Yeddyurappa and Narayan Rane were examples of "political whitewashing". “Between 2004 and 2014, the ED conducted 112 raids. In the past eight years, the number of such raids went up to 3,010. During the Modi government, 95 percent of ED raids were against opposition leaders. Whenever the BJP is afraid, it sends the ED,” Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said.
Elaborating on the details of the raids, Khera said, “Since 2014 party-wise list of ED raids reveals, Congress 24, TMC 19, NCP 11, Shiv Sena 8, DMK 6, BSP 5, SP 5, TDP 5, INLD 3, YSRCP 3, CPI-M 2, NC 2, PDP 2, Industries 2, AIADMK 1, MNS 1 and SBSP 1". According to Khera, the ED had earlier raided the National Herald newspaper when Sonia Gandhi was questioned for three days, Rahul Gandhi was questioned for over 50 hours and Kharge was questioned for over 7 hours.
