NEW DELHI: Ahead of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's questioning by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the party alleged on Thursday that the Delhi Police is preventing the media from entering the AICC headquarters here and said this "high-handedness" reflects the mindset of the Narendra Modi government.
The opposition party is set to stage protests across the country against the questioning of its chief and has slammed the agency's action against its top leadership as "political vendetta".
"From the early hours of this morning the Delhi Police -- obviously taking orders from the Union Home Minister -- is preventing the media from entering the Congress party headquarters," Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said in a tweet.
"This high-handedness was only to be expected and reflects the mindset of the Modi Sarkar," he added.
The Congress president is set to appear before the ED on Thursday for questioning in a money-laundering probe related to the National Herald-Associated Journals Limited case and top party leaders will converge at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) headquarters for the protests.
Similar protests were held when Sonia Gandhi's son and former party president Rahul Gandhi was quizzed by the ED in connection with the case last month.
Ramesh had said on Wednesday that the Congress will stage demonstrations across the country in "a most telling manner" against what he described as political vendetta.
When Rahul Gandhi was questioned by the ED, the police had made elaborate arrangements.
A large number of Congress leaders were detained, taken to far-away locations and released only at midnight.
Congress MPs had raised strong objections and complained to the president, vice president and Lok Sabha speaker against the police's "high-handedness".
The BJP on Thursday criticised the Congress' protests as its "duragrah" (obstinate demand) for protecting the Gandhi family.
BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad noted that Congress leaders, including Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul, have been accused of grabbing valuable assets of the Associate Journal Ltd, which publishes the National Herald newspaper.
Their plea to quash the FIR has been dismissed by every court, including the Supreme Court, the former Union minister told reporters.
"The Congress has become a pocket organisation of a family, and now its assets are also being pocketed by the family," he alleged, attacking the Gandhis.
Both are out on bail in the case, he told reporters.
Gandhis floated Young Indian, in which Sonia Gandhi and Rahul have 76 per cent shares, to grab assets of the National Herald, he charged.
The Congress has dubbed the probe as the ruling BJP's political vendetta.
It has described its agitation against the ED's probe against Sonia Gandhi and Rahul in the National Herald case as "satyagraha", a form of protest associated with Mahatma Gandhi.
She is set to appear before the agency later on Thursday for questioning.
This is not "satyagraha" but "duragrah" against the country, its laws and its agencies, Prasad said.
This is also a "duragrah" for protecting the family which has "pocketed" the party's assets worth thousands of crores of rupees, he alleged.
While Rahul Gandhi accused the BJP of misusing institutions, he does not want to answer the questions raised by probe agencies, the former law minister said.
He said the Congress had harassed then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi in the 2002 riots cases but Modi appeared before the agency probing the matter and the BJP did not carry out any protest like the Congress has been.
Modi, now prime minister, came out clean, he said.
"The BJP respects institutions but look at the Congress. Its chief ministers and MPs, who are not attending Parliament, are sitting in Delhi. They are trying to demoralise the ED," he said.