Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president D.K. Shivakumar and Congress Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah on Thursday lashed out at the Narendra Modi government over raids by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on the residence of Congress MLA B.Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan in Bengaluru.
Mr. Shivakumar told reporters in Delhi that the BJP-led Union government had been misusing ED and I-T agencies to harass and target leaders of the Opposition parties. “Where was the ED and I-T wings of the Central government when BJP leaders indulged in ‘Operation Lotus’ through money-laundering and toppled the coalition government,” Mr. Shivakumar sought to know.
Mr. Shivakumar’s residence was raided last year by CBI officials in connection with an alleged disproportionate assets case.
The KPCC president also questioned as why the Central agencies were not conducting raids on BJP leaders and why only Congress leaders were being targeted.
In BJP government there were two types of rules and justice, one for BJP leaders and other for Opposition leaders, Mr. Shivakumar alleged and said the party MLA had the ability to fight the case legally in the court.
Mr. Siddaramaiah tweeted that “ED raid on B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan is politically motivated and an attempted by @BJP4India to intimidate leaders from opposition parties. I strongly condemned this undemocratic act of BJP to use institutions like ED, IT etc”.
Mr. Khan had commenced a campaign to project Mr. Siddaramaiah as the party’s chief ministerial face in the 2023 Assembly elections. This campaign had irked Mr. Shivakumar and finally Central leaders of the party had told both the leaders not to raise the chief ministerial candidate issue and work in unision for the party’s victory in 2023.
