Gandhi family must pay for its 'sins': Ravi Shankar Prasad

The BJP on Wednesday hit back at the Congress over its condemnation of the seizure of National Herald assets, as the ruling party asserted that the Gandhi family must pay for its "sins". Former Union minister and BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad accused the Gandhi family of capturing National Herald assets by converting the now-defunct newspaper's properties into its "personal properties".An online version of the publication is, however, available.
Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Prasad asked the Congress to explain as to how the action taken against "rank dishonesty and loot of public property" can be described as negation of democracy.After the ED attached assets of the Congress-promoted National Herald on Tuesday, the Congress said such "petty vendetta tactics" cannot frighten it and dubbed the probe agency a "coalition partner" of the BJP. Its leader K C Venugopal slammed the BJP and the probe agencies as "murderers of democracy".
Prasad said the newspaper had prime properties in many cities and alleged that senior Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi appropriated these pricey assets as the shares of the firm owning it were transferred to a company where the two controlled 76 per cent of shares.It was a shameful new low in democracy, he claimed.The Gandhi family not only appropriated the Congress' legacy of spearheading the freedom movement but also the assets associated with the party, he alleged, adding that both Congress leaders moved judiciary against actions of probe agencies, including Income Tax, but did not get relief.What the family did was a case of the "Congress and commerce", he said, citing the use of the phrase in past cases of similar nature involving opposition leaders.

#WATCH | Delhi: On ED attaching the properties of AJL and Young Indian in a money laundering case, BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad says, "...Congress party always say that they worked in the fight of the freedom movement... First, they appropriated the freedom movement to their… pic.twitter.com/hJKIciWUZC

— ANI (@ANI) November 22, 2023

Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Wednesday slammed the Enforcement Directorate for attaching assets of the Congress-promoted National Herald newspaper and described it as a "new low in politics".Sibal, a former Congress leader, also alleged that the probe agency has been acting at the behest of the "powers that be".The Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Tuesday that it has attached immovable assets and equity shares worth about Rs 752 crore as part of its ongoing money laundering investigation against the National Herald newspaper and companies linked to it.