Congress protest march is in support of corruption,says BJP Minister Smriti Irani

The BJP on Monday took a hard hit at the protest march of the Congress, saying members of the opposition party have hit the streets in support of corruption and to allegedly protect more than Rs 2,000 crore assets of the Gandhi family. BJP was referring to the ED summons issued to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case,

Addressing a press conference, Union Minister Smriti Irani said the show of strength by the Congress is targeted at putting pressure on the probe agency. She further asserted that nobody is above the law, "not even Rahul Gandhi." She urged Congress members to ask Rahul Gandhi about his family's relations with Dotex Merchandise, which the Minister described as a hawala operator whose transactions have been constantly flagged by the Financial Intelligence Unit.

Smriti Irani later went on to allege that the Gandhi family floated Young Indian to grab the assets worth more than Rs 2,000 crore of Associated Journals Limited, which publishes the National Herald newspaper. She added that never before was such a blatant attempt made by a political family to hold a probe agency to ransom. Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Monday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate for questioning in the National Herald money-laundering investigation.

The National Herald case was brought by Subramanian Swamy, a BJP politician who accused the Gandhis of misusing party funds to buy a company that published the now-defunct National Herald newspaper. The case was brought in a trial court by Mr. Swamy in 2012, alleging that the Gandhis used Congress party funds and took over AJL to try to acquire more than 20 billion rupees in property assets. Congress, in return, had rubbished the allegations and also accused the BJP of "political vendetta."It further accused the government of using ED and other federal law enforcement agencies against its political opponents to harass them.