Cong accuses BJP of misusing ED as a political tool
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, June 15 2022: The Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) has accused BJP of misusing the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to target Opposition leaders selectively.

Speaking to media persons at Congress Bhavan here this afternoon, MPCC president K Meghachandra said that the ED has been targeting only Opposition leaders while BJP leaders involved in many scams and looting public money are never pulled up.

Meghachandra said that the ED was not pressed into action when a contractor committed suicide after writing a suicide note which led to resignation of a Minister in Karnataka.

On the other hand, the Central Government has been repeatedly targeting Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi by using the ED as a political tool and thus the BJP has been projecting the Congress leaders as involved in corruption.

Cong accuses BJP of misusing ED as a political tool

The National Herald is a newspaper owned by the Associated Journals Limited.

It was set up in 1937 by Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Purushottam Tandon, Acharya Narendra Dev, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai and others to give a voice to the freedom movement of India.

The newspaper which was closely associated with Congress party proved to be a big help to the freedom movement.

However, the British rulers banned the National Herald from 1942 to 1945 at the height of the Quit India Movement and Mahatma Gandhi described the ban as tragedy for the National movement, the MPCC president said.

After India achieved independence, the National Herald ran into financial losses and incurred an outstanding due of Rs 90 crore.

In order to help the National Herald tide over the financial crisis, the Congress party gave a loan of Rs 90 crore to it over a period of 10 years between 2002 and 2011 in about 100 instalments.

Out of this Rs 90 crore, the National Herald used Rs 67 crore to pay salary and VRS of its employees.

Rest of the money was used for payment of Government dues like electricity charges, house tax, tenancy charges, building expenditure etc, he said.

Grant of loan by a political party is not a criminal offence under any law in the country and as such, no case can be registered under the Money Laundering Act for giving a loan of Rs 90 crore to the National Herald, Meghachandra contended.

Nonetheless, BJP leader Subramaniam Swamy filed an RTI application regarding the matter.

In reply, the Election Commission of India replied that granting of loan to the National Herald could not be considered as money laundering under the Money Laundering Act.

However, the BJP-led Government has been levelling different charges against the Congress leaders.

It looks like the BJP is jealous of Congress leaders, the MPCC president said.

As the National Herald and its parent company Associated Journals Limited were unable to repay the loan of Rs 90 crore, the loan amount was converted into equity shares of Associated Journals Limited.

As Indian National Congress cannot own equity shares, its share (of Rs 90 crore) was allotted to Young Indian, a not-for-profit company which controls the Associated Journals Limited, Meghachandra elaborated.

Even though it is not necessary at all, the ED has been summoning Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to their office repeatedly and they are being prohibited from entering the office of AICC, he continued.

He then urged the BJP-led Central Government to take necessary steps to check inflation and mitigate the problem of unemployment.

The BJP-led Central Government's announcement to provide jobs to two crore people in a year and the BJP-led State Government's declaration to provide jobs to 1.5 lakh people in one year are all false promises, asserted the MPCC president.

Whereas the Congress party set up a number of public sector undertakings one after another starting from 1947, BJP is now privatising a number of Government/public assets one by one, he said.

As a number of public sector undertakings have been sold off, the problem of unemployment is bound to multiply.

Instead of working for development of the country and solve the pressing issues of inflation and unemployment, the BJP-led Government has been attacking Congress leaders by fabricating baseless charges, he continued.

The MPCC president added that the truth can never by defeated by lies and falsehoods.