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‘Congress under siege’: Top leaders rush to AICC HQ amid heavy cop presence
On Tuesday, the ED raided the head office of the National Herald newspaper here and 11 other locations as part of its probe. The ED had earlier questioned Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi in the case.
Several senior Congress leaders, including Mallikarjun Kharge, P Chidambaram, Salman Khurshid and Digvijaya Singh, rushed to the AICC (All India Congress Committee) headquarters after the Enforcement Directorate(ED) sealed premises of the Young Indian (YI) in the Congress party-headed National Herald newspaper's office on Wednesday. The ED has also ordered that the office not be opened without the agency’s permission.
The party further said it received a letter from the police stating that it cannot hold any protest on August 5 - the day when it was planning to hold massive protests, including the "Chalo Rashtrapati Bhavan" march, against inflation.
“Today, we received a letter from DCP that we can't protest on Aug 5 & AICC was turned into a Police cantonment,” party’s general secretary Ajay Maken said during a press briefing.
“The government may suppress us as much as they want but we'll protest against inflation, unemployment, GST on edible items and go ahead with our schedule even if jailed,” he added.
Anticipating protests by the Congress workers, additional forces of police have also been deployed outside the office, and residence of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi at Janpath. "We have received inputs from our special branch that some protesters might gather at the Congress Office situated on Akbar Road. So, as a preventive measure, we have put barricades and deputed our personnel to avoid any untoward situation,” a senior Delhi police officer told news agency ANI.
Meanwhile, the Congress leaders termed this “the worst form of vendetta politics” and said the police barricading outside party offices has become a norm rather than an exception.
The party’s general secretary Jairam Ramesh shared a video showing heavy police presence outside the AICC headquarters and wrote: “@INCIndia is under siege. Delhi police have surrounded our HQs, and homes of INC President & ex-President.This is the worst form of vendetta politics. We will not submit! We will not be silenced! We will continue to raise our voice against injustices and failures of Modi Sarkar! (sic)”
On Tuesday, the ED raided the head office of the National Herald newspaper here and 11 other locations as part of its probe. The ED had earlier questioned Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi in the case.
(With ANI inputs)
