BELAGAVI: A day after a Delhi court refused to take cognisance of the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) prosecution complaint in the National Herald case, the Congress legislators in Karnataka showed their strength by holding a protest near the Mahatma Gandhi statue outside Suvarna Vidhana Soudha in Belagavi on Wednesday.
Raising slogans against the BJP, the Congress leaders alleged that the saffron party was indulging in vendetta politics and was trying to target the Congress across the country.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that the BJP had filed a completely false and fabricated case against the members of the Gandhi family and other veteran Congress leaders in the National Herald case.
“Today, the verdict of the court has acted as a slap on the face of the BJP for misusing ED to target the Congress. The verdict has also proved that the truth has prevailed and falsehood has perished,” the CM said, adding that such cases are filed only to divert the public attention from major issues such as price rise, unemployment, and rampant corruption during Modi rule.
When Dr Manmohan Singh was the PM, the total debt of India was around Rs 56 lakh crore, but after the Modi government came to power, the debt has shot up to a whopping Rs 200 lakh crore, he said.
Siddaramaiah made it clear that the Congress will fight the oppression of the BJP both inside and outside the House.
Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar described the court’s ruling as historic, where false cases filed by the BJP had fallen flat. He said that the country’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru, and other Congress leaders started the National Herald to inspire people to fight against British rule. Shivakumar said that there was illegality and misappropriation of funds.
Congress MLC BK Hariprasad recalled the history of when, who, and why the National Herald was started by the Congress. He claimed after the newspaper incurred losses, the Congress spent around Rs 90 crore for the functioning of the paper. “The money was donated to the Congress by each party worker. It was not ill-gotten money,” he said.
Issue echoes in Assembly too
The National Herald issue also echoed in the Assembly on Wednesday which led to a verbal duel between the Congress and the BJP. Congress MLA AS Ponnanna wanted a discussion on the alleged misuse of Central agencies such as the ED, IT and CBI to target the Opposition parties.
Soon after the legislator began talking on the matter, Opposition MLAs stood up and opposed it. MLAs, led by LoP R Ashoka, said that Ponnanna was raising an irrelevant matter which has no connection to Karnataka Assembly.
This angered the Congress MLAs who said that the matter is in public interest.
Amid the din, Speaker UT Khader adjourned the House for 10 minutes. When the House convened again, Law Minister HK Patil sought Khader’s permission to allow the Congress MLA to raise the matter. But, Khader denied permission stating that the matter does not fall under the rule to be discussed in the Assembly.