Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday lashed out at the Narendra Modi government accusing it of launching a “political witch-hunt,” a day after the party received an income tax notice in the controversial National Herald case. “An income tax notice in the National Herald case is political vindictiveness. A political witch-hunt will only help us to come back faster and to fight harder,” Ms. Gandhi told NDTV.
Party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said that the I-T notice reflected the “fear and insecurity” of the newly elected government and stressed that it was “going to be given a vigorous, robust and comprehensive reply,” as the case has “none of the ingredients of an offence.”
However, top government sources said, “There is no ambiguity in the law. If money is given to a political party, it can only be utilised for political purposes. The Congress needs to reverse the fund transfer [it made to Associated Journals that had owned the now defunct National Herald] or face consequences.” Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar, said, “We don’t believe in political vendetta. But if a law has been broken, there will be consequences.”
The I-T notice comes in the wake of a Delhi court ordering process on a private criminal complaint filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy against Ms. Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and others for acquiring the assets of Associated Journals.
