Congress Leaders Stage Dharna Before ED Office

The Telangana Congress today staged a dharna in front of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office in the city protesting the serving of notices to party leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in connection with a case related to the National Herald daily.

The dharna was held coinciding with the appearance of Rahul Gandhi before the ED office in New Delhi today.

Speaking on the occasion, TPCC president Revanth Reddy warned the union government that the party workers would not be mute spectators if it insulted the Gandhi family which had sacrificed everything for the development of the country.

He said that National Herald was founded for achieving freedom for the country, that the first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had launched the newspaper in 1937, and that Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel had acted as pillars for the newspaper. Rahul Gandhi had come to the rescue of the daily when it was facing losses, and the paper was relaunched despite a debt of Rs. 90 crore. It was thus preposterous that the ED was investigating the Gandhis, he said.

Stating that both Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi had been given a clean chit in the case, he said that the Modi government had reopened the case as he feared the victory of the Congress in the next general elections.

He also claimed that the ED notices were served on the Gandhi family only after the daily had started exposing the "corruption" of the BJP leaders.

He said that the Gandhi family did not require power and money, and that the Congress workers alone could mobilise Rs. 5,000 crore in donations if the Gandhi family wanted that.

He said that similar protests were being held in all the States, and that the Congress would teach a befitting lesson to all those who had insulted Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.