Delhi Police forces were deployed in front of the Congress headquarters on Akbar Road on Wednesday afternoon. Sonia Gandhi’s house is next to Ten Janpath. A policeman in a khaki uniform is also in front of that. Before the Congress leaders and workers could understand anything, that part of Akbar Road was surrounded by barricades and closed. Rahul Gandhi’s residence on Tughlaq Lane is a short distance away. Rahul is in Karnataka. The road in front of his house was also barricaded.
Why this security fleet?
In no time it was known that the office of ‘National Herald’ had been ‘sealed’ by ED. After questioning Sonia and Rahul Gandhi in the case, the ED searched the office all day on Tuesday. On August 3, a notice was hung there on behalf of ED, saying that this office should not be opened without their permission. Anticipating that Congress might protest against this move, the security arrangements were made in advance.
Some feel that this settlement is also a pre-emptive measure to prevent Congress from besieging the Prime Minister’s house on Friday to protest against the price hike. Rahul is supposed to return home from Karnataka this night. A group of leaders led by P Chidambaram visited Rahul’s house this afternoon to see if there would be any difficulty in entering his house.
Sonia’s stance
On Wednesday morning, Sonia Gandhi clashed with party MPs in the Lok Sabha against the use of CBI-ED for political purposes. The opposition raised slogans, ‘ED government, shame, shame’, ‘ED, Modi, down, down.’ Right after that, Congress again accused the Modi government of political vendetta as the ED ‘sealed’ the offices of the National Herald. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said, “Congress is under siege now. Delhi Police has surrounded our headquarters, president’s house, and former president’s house. But we cannot be silenced.” Congress leader Ashok Gehlot called it an ‘undeclared emergency.
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17 political parties issued a joint statement criticizing the Supreme Court’s decision to seal the arbitrary power of ED on the 3rd. “We hope that this dangerous judgment will expire soon and the constitutional order will be restored,” the statement said. The Trinamool Congress and Aam Aadmi Party also signed the statement covering the rift in the opposition alliance. The opposition has asked for time to court the President.
Two days ago, ED arrested Shiv Sena’s Rajya Sabha leader Sanjay Raut. In the Rajya Sabha too, the opposition has rallied against the misuse of the Central Investigation Agency. Before that, Sonia fell out with Congress and DMK MPs in the Lok Sabha. Trinamool, NCP also joined the protest. DMK’s Kanimozhi asked Congress’s Shashi Tharoor, and Karti Chidambaram to come down to the well as the opposition was not allowed to speak about it. Sonia herself went to Well and joined the protest. After Mallikarjun Kharge criticized the Modi government in the Rajya Sabha, Shiv Sena’s Priyanka Chaturvedi raised the question, why did the ED not inform the Rajya Sabha chairman about Raut’s arrest?