Hitting out at the Bharatiya Janata Party government at the Centre for the Enforcement Directorate’s raids against Congress leaders in Rajasthan, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Friday said the countdown for Prime Minister Narendra Modi had begun following the use of Central investigating agencies as “political weapons”. The ED would soon learn its lesson for harassing the politicians, he said.
The ED had conducted raids on the premises of State Congress chief Govind Singh Dotasra, contesting the upcoming Assembly election from Lachhmangarh, and Congress candidate from Mahuwa, Om Prakash Hudla, as part of a money laundering probe on Thursday. The ED has also issued summons to Mr. Gehlot’s son in a separate foreign exchange violation case.
Mr. Gehlot said at a press conference here that the ED had targeted Mr. Dotasra because he was quite vocal against the BJP. The State Congress chief had given publicity to the government’s policies, programmes and decisions, but he was also criticising the BJP government at the Centre, he said.
Quoting the recent remarks of Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, Mr. Gehlot said the CM had to point out that more than dogs, it was the ED that was on the prowl in the country (Desh mein kutton se zyada ED ghoom rahi hai). “You can understand the agony with which he must have made the comment. Can there be a bigger misfortune than this?” he said.
The Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee staged a protest demonstration outside the ED’s office at Ambedkar Circle here on Friday. State Minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas, Congress co-in charges for Rajasthan Amrita Dhawan and Virendra Singh Rathore and a large number of Congress MLAs and party workers took part in the demonstration.
State BJP spokesperson Laxmikant Bhardwaj said Mr. Gehlot had made remarks against the ED “out of [his] frustration” because of the agency’s investigation into the corruption rampant in the Congress rule. Mr. Bhardwaj said it was strange that the Congress leaders in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh were comparing the ED with dogs after spending the last five years in factional fights to save their chair.
