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Chidambaram finds ED summons to Gandhis 'absurd': ‘money-laundering without…’
The fresh ED summons to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and MP Rahul Gandhi has triggered a war of words between the ruling BJP and the opposition party.
Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Wednesday took an apparent jibe at the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) summons to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and MP Rahul Gandhi for questioning in a money laundering case linked to the National Herald newspaper. Taking to Twitter, Chidambaram said that “money-laundering without money is like alleging purse snatching without a purse.”
“It is like alleging that you were found unauthorisedly swimming in a pool that had no water,” he quipped. “You can think of more examples (each one more absurd than the other)”
The fresh summons to Gandhis triggered a war of words between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress, with the opposition party alleging that the BJP is using “puppet agencies to intimidate political opponents”. Senior lawyers and Rajya Sabha MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi told a press conference that the ED had closed the case in 2015 but new officials were brought into the agency to revive the matter.
“Friends, this is a part of a larger disease. A disease, which will consume the ruling party ultimately. The disease is one of attacking every political party purely on vendetta terms from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, from Farooq Abdullah to DMK functionaries, from Gujarat to West Bengal, from Mevani to Mamata Banerjee and the family of Mamata Banerjee,”Singhvi said.
“The BJP has brought or tried to bring malafide every political opponent under the net of puppet agencies like ED, CBI, IT etc,” he added.
Reacting to Congress’s stand, BJP’s national President JP Nadda said, “Have you ever seen a criminal say I’m criminal? They’ll of course deny it. Documents are proof. If charge sheet is filed, you’d approach court to get it quashed, but they sought bail. It means they’re guilty,” he said.
