Protesting against the questioning of party’s national president Sonia Gandhi by the Enforcement Directorate in a money-laundering case, the Punjab Congress leaders and workers on Thursday faced water cannons when they tried to force their way through police barricades.
Led by Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, Leader of Opposition in Vidhan Sabha Partap Singh Bajwa, former Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, hundreds of party leaders and workers were heading towards Punjab Raj Bhawan when the police used water cannon to stop them.
Notably, Sonia Gandhi appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Delhi on Thursday. The probe relates to alleged financial irregularities in the Congress-promoted Young Indian Private Limited, which owns the National Herald newspaper.
Despite heavy rains, thousands of workers, who had come from all over the State, converged on the Punjab Congress Bhawan for their onward march towards the Raj Bhawan. They were stopped on the way with water cannons and were later detained by the police.
Police had put up barricades outside the Congress party office in Chandigarh’s Sector-15 to stop protesters from heading towards the Punjab Governor's residence. Police used water cannon to prevent the Congress leaders and workers from going towards the Raj Bhawan. Later, the party leaders, including Warring, were briefly detained.
Hitting out at the BJP-led Centre, senior Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa accused it of “misusing” the central agencies against its political opponents. The way the current dispensation is “misusing” the central agencies, no other government had ever done, alleged Bajwa.
Slamming the Centre, Punjab Congress chief Warring said: “We are not scared of the CBI and the ED.”
Warring, addressing the protestors, said that it was not the fight of Congress president Sonia Gandhi alone, but it was the fight of each and every citizen of the country who supported democracy, freedom, and liberty.
“BJP government at the Centre is badly mistaken if it thought that it could intimidate the Congress party this way,” he said while expressing his gratitude to the party workers who had joined the protest despite heavy rains that lashed the region overnight.
Condemning the Central Government, Bajwa said that the government also knew that nothing was going to come out of this case but it only wanted to create a false perception. He pointed out that earlier Rahul Gandhi was questioned for five days, for twelve hours each day. And now, he added, they have questioned Sonia Gandhi.
PROBE AGENCIES SHOULD NOT BE USED AS POLITICAL WEAPON AGAINST OPPONENTS: HOODA
Senior Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Thursday said the probe agencies should not be used as a political weapon to target opponents, stressing that the institutions will lose their credibility and democracy will be in danger.
''In our democratic setup, these agencies also form part of what are called pillars of our democracy and thus their credibility is important,'' he said after the Haryana unit of the Congress protested questioning of party president Sonia Gandhi in a money-laundering case by the Enforcement Directorate in New Delhi on Thursday. ''If these agencies are used as a political weapon, then they will lose their credibility and if that happens democracy will be in danger,'' he added.
The former Haryana chief minister said central probe agencies like the CBI, ED, and Income Tax Department should not be used as ''a political weapon by the Centre to target opponents''.
Referring to several party workers who came here to be part of the protest, Hooda said, ''In a democracy, you have to raise the voice of people. Despite inclement weather, many came here for the protest. This shows that people are not happy with what the government is doing''. He also slammed the state government over unemployment, crime, and soaring inflation. He said on Friday that the party's state unit will hold protests at district headquarters over the misuse of probe agencies and the deteriorating law and order situation in Haryana.