I view ED interrogation as medal: Rahul Gandhi

Taking a dig at the Centre, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said that he views his interrogation by Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the National Herald case "like a medal". Addressing a public rally at Wandoor in Malappuram in Kerala, Gandhi said he was not worried and accused the BJP-led government of using probe agencies against its political rivals.

"After I left, I was wondering why they only interrogated me for five days, why not 10 days. I thought maybe I'm not opposing them strongly enough...it is quite clear that anybody who opposes the BJP faces ED. I view my five days of interrogation like a medal, and I am hoping that they do it again 3,4,5,6,10 times," Gandhi said. "The BJP thinks that by interrogating me for five days asking me the same questions again and again for 55-60 hours, I will get worried," he added.

Rahul Gandhi was questioned by ED for five days about the ownership of Young Indian Private Limited (YIL) by the Gandhi family and its shareholding pattern in Associate Journals Limited (AJL), the company that runs the National Herald newspaper. Gandhi said that the Centre won't use CBI, ED against Kerala CM because BJP and CPI-M "have an understanding".

"Why the ED did not question the Kerala Chief Minister at all. I am being questioned for 5 days by ED and the Chief Minister of Kerala is not questioned at all? Why is it that the government of India which has ED, CBI, which uses these instruments against anybody who opposes them, why is it that they are not using them against the Chief Minister of Kerala?--because there is an understanding between the BJP and the CPM (Communist Party of India-Marxist)," he said. The Congress leader alleged that the government was keen on "capturing institutions"

"Anybody who stands against the ideology of the RSS of the BJP is attacked in the media by the ED, by the CBI, by the police. And the BJP and the Prime Minister think that they can frighten the people who do not agree with their ideology. But there are many, many people in the country, who are not frightened," he said. He accused the BJP of "spreading hate" and said people should fight against any effort to divide communities.

"You are all aware about what is happening in our country today. The more they try to divide society, the more they try to play one religion against another, the more we have to unify our country and bring people together," he said. He said employment opportunities have been hit by the government's measures including demonetisation and "flawed" implementation of GST.

"If you look at the demonetization and you look at the way they have designed the GST, it is aimed at destroying small and medium businesses in our country, and ensuring that two or three big businessmen get all the benefits; and you can see the effect of this-- airport after airport, port after port, infrastructure project after infrastructure project goes to the same business people, but it is small and medium businesses that provide jobs to our country," he said. Rahul Gandhi also referred to Agniveer scheme.

"When you see the youth of this nation protest against unemployment as they did just a few days ago when the government announced the Agniveer scheme, they are crushed by the BJP," he added. He said Congress ideology is the only solution to deal with the "disaster the BJP is creating",

"It (India) is going to have to deal with the consequences of these actions and there is only one ideology that can deal with it-- is the ideology of the Congress and the ideology of the UDF (United Democratic Front)." "The choice is not between the BJP and the congress, it is between the Congress and disaster. The choice is between the Congress' ideology and intense anger and hatred in the society." (ANI)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)