Amit Bishnoi
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) seems to have breathed a new life into a drowning Congress by issuing summons to party MP Rahul Gandhi and its interim president Sonia Gandhi. The party solidly stood behind Rahul on Monday when the ED officers questioned him for 11 hours. The senior party leaders and thousands of its workers took to streets in Delhi and staged sit-ins outside the ED office on APJ Abdul Kalam Road. The leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party, however, called the Congress’s protest as a drama. The same BJP leaders, as created a big fuss over the petrol and cooking gas price hike during the rule of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), have so far kept mum over the skyrocketing prices of essential commodities.
Also read: Rahul Gandhi joins ED probe for second day
The theory that where you stand depends on where you sit has worked well. A few BJP leaders even said that the Congress was trying to hide the ill-gotten assets of the Gandhis. In the fight between the BJP and the Congress, the common man wanted to know the reasons for using the central probe agencies only against the opposition leaders. The Congress staged sit-ins outside ED offices in various states across the country and that unnerved the BJP. The senior leaders of the Congress, like Oman Chandy, P Chidambaram, Digvijaya Singh, Ashok Gehlot, Harish Rawat and many others took part in the protests.
They called the ED summons a government’s ploy to deflect people’s attention from the real issues, like inflation, unemployment, price rise and the nation’s loss of prestige in the international arena following Nupur Sharma and Naveen Kumar Jindal’s remarks against the Prophet. The police men took the Congress leaders and thousands of workers into custody. Yet, they failed to stop the determined party workers from holding protests outside ED offices in Delhi and other states.
Also read: Where is the FIR, Chidambaram asks BJP
The BJP came to power on the issue of corruption. The party vehemently raised the issue of 2G scam and coal scam, but its government has so far kept mum on these two issues. Ergo, they have taken up the same National Herald issue as the ED closed earlier. In 2012, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy filed a complaint before a trial court, alleging that some Congress leaders were involved in cheating and breaching of trust in the acquisition of Associated Journals Limited by Young India Limited (YIL). Swami said that YIL had taken over the assets of the National Herald in a ‘malicious’ way. The Congress, however, said there had been no money laundering in the National Herald case.
The Congress has succeeded in taking the fight to the turf of the BJP by remaining united, which has become a rare phenomenon in the party these days. The ED will sharpen its attack on the Gandhis in coming days. George Orwell rightly said, “Until they become conscious, they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled, they cannot become conscious.” What Orwell said is apt to the Congress. The ED seems to have lit the fire of consciousness in the party.