Cong lodges protest with EC on raids at Punjab CM's kin
Darpan News Desk IANS, 20 Jan, 2022 11:51 AM
New Delhi, Jan 20 (IANS) The Congress on Thursday lodged a strong protest with the Election commission days after the ED raided Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi's kin and termed it politically motivated.
The party alleged that family members of Charanjit Singh Channi, a leader of the Congress, are being targeted in order to create a perception and influence electors into believing that Sardar Charanjit Singh Channi through his family members and the Indian National Congress is involved in the allegations of money laundering.
"Malice and Malafide news stories planted by the ED against the Chief Minister and fake perception being created - Deliberate and malicious news is being selectively leaked and planted in the news media imputing motives at Chief Minister, Sardar Charanjit Singh Channi," it said.
The Congress said, ED Raids are a revenge against failure of PM's rally in Ferozepur on January 5. A sustained attack has been launched by the Central Government and the BJP against Sardar Charanjit Singh Channi, Chief Minister of Punjab.
An AICC Delegation comprising Randeep S. Surjewala, Abhishek M. Singhvi, Harish Chaudhary, Devender Yadav, Ganesh Godiyal, Pranav Jha, Aman Panwar and others met the CEC virtually to protest against the raids by ED.
The delegation also reminded the CEC about the violations of Model Code of Conduct by the Uttarakhand Government for back- dating and tampering of Government records as also Representation of People Act, 1951.
The party alleged, "blatant misuse of Central Investigative Agencies for conducting politically motivated raids with the sole objective to publicly defame and malign the leaders of Indian National Congress, particularly, the Congress Chief Minister in the State of Punjab, continues regardless of the Model Code of Conduct and with a view to illegally influence public opinion in the ongoing elections scheduled to be held on 20.02.2022."
The Congress alleged that similar raids were carried prior to 2019 elections when, "the Commission, while taking cognizance of our memorandums and in exercise of all appropriate and residue powers under Article 324 of the Constitution of India had issued an advisory to the Central Government on the illegal, motivated and vendetta driven enforcement actions being undertaken by the Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue, a month before the general elections."
The party said that it's unfortunate that despite a specific direction issued by this Commission, the Central Government continues to flout it with impunity as if they are baiting this commission to profess that a premeditated Central Government is neither under the jurisdiction of this Commission nor does it need to adhere to any constitutional authority.
Sonia Gandhi on Monday approved several committees ahead of the Assembly polls in Goa. Girish Chodankar has been retained as the state president and former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat will continue as the Congress legislative party leader while Alexio Sequeira is the Working state President.
After Taliban took over Kabul on August 15, Afghanistan has plunged into a big humanitarian crisis. Pakistan is perceived as having played a major role in bringing the Taliban back to power. As evacuation of foreign nationals winds down, a US missile defence system intercepted rockets fired towards the Kabul international airport.
Adityanath visited the families of those who lost their members and assured them of help. The Chief Minister also visited the 100-bed district hospital at Firozabad where children showing symptoms of the disease are being treated.
The Punjab Chief Minister reminded Khattar and his deputy Dushyant Chautala that the farmers who were protesting against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) meeting in Karnal when the police baton charged them belonged to Haryana and not Punjab.
A video had gone viral of the SDM shouting out instructions to policemen to use force to stop the protesting farmers. Khattar had told a press conference that the officer's "choice of words was not correct" but said, "if any action has to be taken (against the officer), it would first have to be assessed by the district administration."
Speaking at a party function in Amritsar city, Sidhu said "if he is allowed to work according to his own policy of hope and faith, he will ensure Congress rule in the state for 20 years".
