NEW DELHI: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday said the Supreme Court has given importance to the points raised by the Congress and other opposition parties on the Waqf (Amendment) Act and alleged that the government had raked the ‘Waqf by user’ issue deliberately to create a dispute over such properties.
Addressing a meeting of general secretary and in-charges here, Kharge said former party chiefs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi were named in the Enforcement Directorate chargesheet and National Herald properties in Delhi, Lucknow and Mumbai were attached with a "spirit of vendetta".
Referring to the Waqf (Amendment) Act that is being heard in the Supreme Court, he said, "I am happy that the Supreme Court has given importance to the points raised by the Congress and other opposition parties."
He accused the BJP and the central government of misleading people on the issue of Waqf.
Especially the issue of 'Waqf by user' has been deliberately brought up by the government to put Waqf properties into dispute," he alleged.
Kharge said the Congress would be cowed down by the Enforcement Directorate's action in the National Herald case.
“You must have noticed how, as part of a big conspiracy, the names of CPP Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi have been put in the charge sheet in the National Herald case. But no matter whose name they put, we are not going to be afraid,” Kharge said.
“Just two or three days before that, the properties of National Herald in Delhi, Lucknow and Mumbai were attached. There is no doubt that all this is being done out of a spirit of vendetta,” he said.
Asserting that 'Young Indian' is a 'not for profit' company, Kharge said this means that no one can take or transfer the shares, properties or profit of AJL.
“The BJP people are misleading people by lying. We have to tell the truth to the public,” he said.
The Enforcement Directorate filed the chargesheet against Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and others before a special court here in the National Herald case, accusing them of laundering Rs 988 crore.
It is alleged that a "criminal conspiracy" was carried out by Congress leaders to "usurp" properties worth Rs 2,000 crore of its public company Associated Journals Limited(AJL) by transferring 99 per cent shares to their private company named Young Indian for just Rs 50 lakh, a firm where Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are the majority shareholders.