Congress plans for a show of strength with a march to the Enforcement Directorate offices today with senior leader Rahul Gandhi, has received a jolt, with the Delhi police refusing to allow it. Permission was denied in view of the “communal and law and order situation,” the Delhi Police said.
Congress sources said the party has approached the Delhi Police again, asking them to reconsider the decision.
Mr Gandhi has been summoned to the offices of the Enforcement Directorate on Monday for questioning in the National Herald money laundering case.
The Congress has planned a nationwide stir on the day. The workers in its state units are expected to hold protests outside the city offices of the agency.
In Delhi, the party’s MPs and other senior leaders are expected to hold a foot-march to the ED offices.
The leaders and workers have been asked to gather at the AICC office in Central Delhi’s Akbar Road, at 9.30 am. The march is to start at 10 am — the 2.5 k to the ED office is to be covered within an hour.
The decision was taken on Thursday at a virtual meeting of the party’s top leaders — general secretaries, in-charges of various states and state unit presidents. The protest was meant to be identical to the one held in 2015, when Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi had sought bail in the case.
Sources said the idea is to highlight the BJP-led Central government’s “vendetta politics” and misuse of the Central agencies.
The case pertains to the probe into the alleged financial irregularities in the party-promoted Young Indian that owns the National Herald newspaper, founded by Jawaharlal Nehru, the great-grandfather of Mr Gandhi. The paper is published by Associated Journals Limited.
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