As former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday was being questioned for the fourth day by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case linked to the National Herald newspaper, the Congress party held a satyagraha at Jantar Mantar to protest against the Centre’s misuse of government agencies to carry out political vendetta against Opposition leaders and the Delhi Police’s alleged manhandling of Congress party leaders without any provocation during the recent protests against the Agnipath scheme. The Congress party also demanded a rollback of the Centre’s Agnipath recruitment scheme for the armed forces.
On Monday, Mr. Gandhi was summoned again by the federal agency, clocking more than 40 hours of questioning.
On a day of hectic protests over multiple issues, Congress leaders marched from Parliament House to Rashtrapati Bhavan and a seven-member delegation handed over two separate memoranda to President Ram Nath Kovind.
One of the memoranda demanded the rollback of the Agnipath scheme while the other pertained to Delhi Police committing excesses such as forcibly entering the All India Congress Committee (AICC) headquarters and beating up members of Parliament (MPs) without provocation.
“We have requested the President as the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces to protect the Constitution, protect the security and defence of this country, protect the traditions and ethos of the Army, Navy and Air Force and to ensure that those who offer to join the defence forces are not left high and dry after four years,” former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram told reporters.
Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, the party’s leader in the Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, his Chhattisgarh counterpart Bhupesh Baghel, senior leaders K C Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh besides Mr Chidambaram were part of the delegation to meet President Kovind.
The petition regarding Delhi Police has urged the President to refer it to the Privileges Committees immediately and suggested that “the Committee begin a time-bound enquiry on breach of privilege”.
Subodh Kant Sahai controversy
At the satyagraha or a sit-in protests at Jantar Mantar, senior Congress leader Subodh Kant Sahai courted controversy by stating that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is “behaving like Adolf Hitler and will die like Hitler” if he follows the path of the German dictator.
Distancing itself from the comments, the Congress party’s communication chief Jairam Ramesh tweeted that the Congress would keep on fighting against “the dictatorial approach and anti-people policies of the Modi government but it would never endorse any indecent comments against the Prime Minister”.
The Janta Mantar sit-in protests, aimed at highlighting Centre’s “vendetta politics” against Mr Gandhi besides Agnipath, was attended by senior leaders like Sachin Pilot and Salman Khurshid besides the chief ministers of Congress-ruled States.
“They’re trying to scare the Congress and Rahul Gandhi by misusing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), ED and the Income Tax department. But it is the BJP and the NDA government who are scared. Everyone is worried and no one knows where this country is headed,” Mr. Gehlot said at the satyagraha protest.
Meanwhile, a day after his 52nd birthday, Mr. Gandhi arrived at ED headquarters at 11.05 a.m. on Monday and the questioning went on until 3:15 p.m. After a lunch break of over an hour, he rejoined the investigation at around 4:45 p.m. and the questioning went on until late evening.
