Kharge hits out at PM Modi over ED’s action against National Herald, says Cong will not be scared

PTI, Nov 22, 2023, 6:05 PM IST

Source: PTI / File

New Delhi: AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Enforcement Directorate attaching assets of the party-promoted National Herald newspaper and said they will not be scared of the BJP and that the Congress will fight it out.

Kharge, who addressed an election rally at Alampur in poll-bound Telangana, attacked PM Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah over the ED’s action, saying that they thought of closing down a newspaper that was started by the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

”I feel sad today. My party’s paper, which was started by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, National Herald…our three papers, Modi yesterday seized the property of the Congress. That property was not of any individual. Pandit Nehru brought out that paper for the freedom struggle and to create awareness among the people. It became the voice of freedom fighters,” he said.

”Modi and Shah thought of closing such a newspaper which was the voice of the people. Their thinking was that if Nehru ji’s paper National Herald is closed, then the people in Telangana will fear and vote for the BJP and KCR,” he said.

If they think that the Congress will be scared due to the attachment, it is wrong and the Congress will never be scared and it will fight ”till the end”, he said.

The Congress was not afraid of the British and got independence for the country and will it be scared of the BJP, Kharge said.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Tuesday that it has attached immovable assets and equity shares worth about Rs 752 crore as part of its ongoing money laundering investigation against the National Herald newspaper and companies linked to it.