INDIA leaders hold meet after Soren’s arrest; ‘blow to federalism’, says Kharge
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi says ED, CBI, and I-T Department “are no longer government agencies, now they have become BJP’s ‘eliminate opposition cell’”
Top leaders of the Opposition bloc INDIA met on Wednesday (January 31) evening and discussed the situation arising after the resignation and arrest of Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren.
The meeting at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s residence was attended by Sonia Gandhi, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, and DMK leader TR Baalu, among others.
Soren’s Jharkhand Mukti Morcha is a constituent of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), formed by more than two dozen Opposition parties to take on the BJP unitedly in the Lok Sabha elections due in April-May.
Soren was arrested on Wednesday in a money-laundering case after resigning as the Jharkhand chief minister, while state transport minister Champai Soren’s name was proposed as the new CM.
“Blow to federalism”
Earlier on Wednesday, Kharge said “forcing” Soren to resign after putting the ED up against him was “a blow to federalism”.
Soren resigned as chief minister on Wednesday evening after over seven hours of questioning by the ED on money-laundering charges linked to alleged land fraud. Thereafter, he was arrested by the agency.
Targeting the government over the development, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that agencies such as the ED, CBI, and the I-T Department “are no longer government agencies, now they have become BJP’s ‘eliminate opposition cell’.”
In a post in Hindi on X, Kharge said, “The one who did not go with (Narendra) Modi ji will go to jail. Putting ED against Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and forcing him to resign is a blow to federalism.”
BJP’s “toolkit”
Intimidating opposition leaders by making the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) draconian is part of the BJP’s toolkit, he alleged.
The BJP’s work of destabilising opposition party-led governments one by one as part of a conspiracy is continuing, the Congress chief further alleged.
“What went into the BJP’s washing machine is clean as white, what didn’t is tainted? If democracy has to be saved from dictatorship, the BJP will have to be defeated. We will not be afraid. We will continue to fight from Parliament to streets,” he also said.
In a post in Hindi on X, Gandhi alleged that in its obsession for power, “the BJP, which is steeped in corruption, is running a campaign to destroy democracy.”
(With agency inputs)