ED stands for 'Eliminating Democracy': Congress

Reacting sharply to raids conducted by the enforcement directorate (ED) at locations linked to Congress leaders and close associates of Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel, Congress said ED stands for eliminating democracy in the Modi regime.

The Congress has said that the ED conducted only 112 raids between 2004-2014, whereas over the 8 years of the Modi regime, it carried out 3010 raids.

 “In Modi’s raid-raj, 95 percent of the politicians questioned by the ED belonged to the opposition parties,” said the head of the Congress communication department, Jairam Ramesh.

The ED raided locations in Raipur linked to eight Congress leaders and office bearers in a money laundering case linked to the alleged coal levy scam in Chhattisgarh.

This development comes three days ahead of the plenary session, which is scheduled to be held from February 24 to 26 in Raipur. As per the Congress party sources, over 10,000 Congress functionaries and senior leaders will participate in the event.

Saying that ED questioned Rahul Gandhi for more than 50 hours and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge for more than 7 hours, Ramesh said, “when BJP feels the pressure, they send the ED.”

 He attacked the Modi government for muzzling the voice of the opposition. Further, in an apparent reference to the Income Tax raids at the BBC offices, the Congress leader has said that when the media raises questions, “You carry out raids.”

“You do not allow us to speak in parliament, forced the judiciary to speak against the government publicly, appointed ED, CBI, Income Tax as one of your frontal organizations against the Congress party and opposition…Is this your ‘mother of democracy’?

Raking up the Adani issue, the Congress asked, “Why don’t you investigate close friend Adani’s mega scams?”

Meanwhile, Congress president, Kharge slammed the Modi government and said, “ED raids before the plenary session shows cowardliness of the BJP government”.