New Delhi: The BJP on Monday slammed the Congress over its show of strength across the country, including national capital on the day their former party president Rahul Gandhi appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a money laundering case related to the National Herald newspaper, and said it was an attempt to save the assets of Rs 2,000 crore of the Gandhi family.
“The protest that Congress leaders and workers are doing today on the call of Rahul Gandhi, is not an attempt to save democracy but an attempt to save the assets of Rs 2,000 crore of the Gandhi family,” Union Minister Smriti Irani said at a press conference here at the BJP headquarters.
She alleged that Associated Journals Limited (AJL) was created to serve the welfare of society but instead of serving the society, the company became limited only to the service of the “Gandhi family”.
“Why is the Gandhi family interested in a former newspaper publishing company which is now running a real estate business…This shows that not just his (Rahul’s) brother-in-law Robert Vadra but the entire Gandhi family is into real estate” Irani said.
“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 Union Minister said.
Attacking the Congress, Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the Congress party is synonymous with ‘ corruption’.
Taking a dig at the grand old party for calling the protests as a new revolution against the ruling BJP, Naqvi said,”Congress is a champion of converting corruption into revolution. The party’s attempt to show strength on the streets against a corruption case proves their ‘chori aur seena zori’.”
“Earlier, the country had witnessed ‘Satyagraha’ against corruption, but now it is witnessing Congress culture of ‘Satyagraha for corruption’ for the first time,” he said.
He also alleged that the Congress has become a “crew of corruption”.
Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat categorically said that one who did not commit a ‘crime,’ should not be scared and should courageously face the probe.
“Anyone who has committed a ‘sin’ should not be spared. If one did not do anything, one should courageously face the investigation,” Shekhawat told reporters on the sidelines of a programme in Rajasthan’s Jodhpur on a query related to former Congress president’s appearance before the ED.
The Union Minister further said, “Whoever had committed financial embezzlement, should not be spared.”
People of the country stand with the government in this regard, claimed Shekhawat.
