On Friday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) dared Congress leaders tainted with corruption to call for a speedy and time-bound judicial process in their cases.
The BJP also attacked the Congress for attributing Enforcement Directorate (ED) action against Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case to political vendetta.
Carrying forward its attack, the BJP referenced the ED chargesheet against the Gandhis for claiming that Congress-ruled state chief ministers diverted taxpaying money into the National Herald newspaper through ads, even with its small number of readers.
Former Union minister Anurag Thakur demanded the financial documents containing the amount of money spent on the ads carried in the weekly newspaper—also having a digital outlet—by Congress-ruled states must be made public.
He charged that the Congress converted the National Herald into a cash cow for themselves, claiming that the Gandhis attempted to purchase assets worth ₹2,000 crore without putting in any personal funds.
In accordance with Thakur, Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi jointly own 76% of Young Indian, the firm that was given a ₹50 lakh loan by the Congress party. He added that this firm subsequently acquired Associated Journals Limited, the organization behind the Congress-connected newspaper, in repayment of ₹90 crore they were owed by the party—leading him to question whether it was legal for a political party to give loans.
"This is the Congress model of corruption. Congress-ruled state governments don't give money directly to the National Herald—instead, they give it through government-sponsored advertisements. What rationale is there for these ad allocations?" Thakur asked.
Pointing out disparity in government advertising expenditure, he said, "Well-established daily newspapers with large circulation throughout districts hardly get funded, yet this week-end newspaper gets a bonanza."
In response to the Congress's accusation that ED's probe is politically motivated, Thakur challenged the accused Congress leaders to go to the judiciary seeking an early trial.
"If they have the courage, they should do it," he dared, claiming that "in the Congress model of corruption, it's always the thieves who shout the loudest.
He also claimed that the recent turns in the National Herald case have stunned the Congress ecosystem into silence.
Thakur highlighted that the Gandhis had filed cases in all the courts several times requesting a halt to the probe—before the Modi government came into power—yet saw no relief except being granted bail. He noted that the judiciary did not find any merit in interfering in the ED's operations.
Changing focus to his native state of Himachal Pradesh, where the Congress is ruling, Thakur blamed the ruling party for not keeping a single one of its 10 major pre-poll promises. Rather, he alleged, the state government spent crores of rupees on National Herald advertising.
Do any Himachal Congress workers or leaders read the National Herald?" he wondered, demanding complete disclosure on how much advertisement expenditure each Congress government has incurred in the paper, particularly given its limited physical availability and online-only presence in several regions.
In the meantime, Congress has also been holding nationwide agitations against the ED's move against its senior leadership.
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