All Congress Working Committee (CWC) members and party MPs have planned to march to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office in Delhi on Monday along with party leader Rahul Gandhi, who is to be questioned in connection with money laundering case pertaining to the National Herald-AJL deal. A satyagraha or dharna will also be held as a ‘show of strength’ in front of all ED state offices across India, against the alleged misuse of the agency by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
However, the Delhi Police has denied permission to Congress for holding a rally which was supposed to be taken out today by the party leaders and workers from AICC Headquarters to the ED office in view of the communal and law and order situation in the district, according to DCP, New Delhi District.
The Congress has been maintaining that this is just a “political game” and misuse of the central agencies by the BJP against those who oppose PM Modi. Interestingly, just a few days ago at the Chintan Shivir in Rajasthan’s Udaipur, Rahul Gandhi had claimed that he had not taken even a single penny from the country’s coffers. The ED summons to him is being seen as a response or a rebuttal of that claim by the Gandhis.
It’s not the first time that Rahul Gandhi has made “daro mat” (don’t be scared) his tag line as he wants to present himself as someone who looks the government squarely in the eyes. He has been attending summons on a defamation notice by the RSS, saying he would not apologise.
He had once even declared that he is Rahul Gandhi and “not Rahul Savarkar”, an obvious dig at the BJP while referencing an important figure in Hindu nationalism who apologised to the British during the freedom movement.
The show of strength is almost similar to the one by the Gandhis in 2015 when both Rahul and Sonia had sought bail in the same case. But many within the Congress are wondering why Rahul Gandhi should make this a show of strength and not just go quietly to ED office as Modi had to the SIT office.
Ironically, many Congress leaders like DK Shivakumar and P Chidambaram, who are to attend the protest, are themselves facing ED summons and investigations.
Some within the Congress feel that this show of strength with these leaders in attendance alongside Rahul Gandhi will give the BJP another opportunity to paint the Congress as a bunch of defaulters.
What BJP Says
BJP functionaries, however, compared this political spectacle being planned by the Congress to the events of March 28, 2010 when Narendra Modi as the Gujarat Chief Minister appeared before the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) that looked into the 2022 Gujarat riots.
Modi had then driven to the SIT office and answered questions in two sessions over almost the entire day, without any political show of strength at the SIT office. Modi had sincerely cooperated without any politics, a source said.
“Narendra Modi had then said that the Constitution of India and the law was supreme and no one was above it. He said that as a citizen and a Chief Minister, he respected the law and his behaviour had answered people who had spread canards about him,” a senior BJP functionary told News18, contrasting that approach to the one being planned by the Congress.
BJP leaders say there was not even an FIR against Modi when he appeared before the SIT while Rahul Gandhi is on bail in the National Herald case.
On March 28, 2010, Modi had entered the SIT office with folded hands without any other big leaders accompanying him. But the Congress has called its MPs to Delhi to march to the ED office when Rahul Gandhi is to appear there for questioning. “This SIT has been made by the Supreme Court and so the SC direction is being followed in the matter,” Modi had said in 2010 after appearing before the SIT in Ahmedabad.
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