Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Monday marched in Delhi as part of solidarity with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) summoned him for alleged money laundering related to the National Herald newspaper.
Talking to the media, he said the whole nation was witnessing the ruling party’s dictatorship.
The entire area had been cordoned off, even Congress workers were not being allowed to reach the party headquarters, he said.
The police have been deployed everywhere in an attempt to crush democracy, Baghel said. The BJP is trying to suppress the democratic right of the opposition to hold protests.
He added the charges of money laundering hurled at the Gandhi family were baseless. Sonia and Rahul Gandhi were falsely implicated and they are being harassed. The case has no grounds for investigation.
"When Sonia Gandhi will appear before the ED, there will be a bigger demonstration than this", Baghel said. "It is clear that we are not going to be suppressed. It is political vendetta."
He added: “The truth will prevail. The Central government is following a dictatorship."
He added that there was no illegality in the actions to settle the debt of any newspaper.
The National Herald newspaper has been a part of the freedom struggle and was started by freedom fighters like Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel and associated with the ideology of the Congress.
Only a business restructure was done and equity was floated in order to keep the historic newspaper alive when it started going into losses, he said.