Congress, BJP spar over raids on Robert Vadra aides

New Delhi: Even as the Congress stepped up its attack on the BJP-led government over ED raids against Robert Vadra’s associates, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of using probe agencies for “political vendetta”, the BJP lashed out by dubbing Mr Vadra the “fountainhead of corruption”.

Senior Congress leaders Kapil Sibal, Ahmed Patel and Randeep Surjewala held a press conference on Saturday evening, hours after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) carried out raids against Mr Vadra’s associates for the second day.

The raids against three persons linked to Mr Vadra, the son-in-law of Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, had started Friday.

“People are being harassed, held practically under arrest in their houses, raided without any notice. Is this the kind of change Modi had advocated for in (the) 2014 (Lok Sabha) election?”, Mr Sibal asked at the press conference.

He alleged that agencies like the ED were “acting on the directions of the Prime Minister”. Official sources said the action was taken on the basis of two FIRs filed by the agency.

Sensing rejection in the just-concluded Assembly polls in five states, the Modi government is in a “state of panic of the highest degree” and that’s why it is using “high-handed tactics” to threaten people.

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said at another press conference earlier in the day that the country has never witnessed such a “terror raj”.

Responding to the Congress, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said the Congress used to call Mr Vadra a private citizen after his name cropped up in corruption cases but now the whole party stands behinad him.

“It implies that he is only a conduit and the final track probably leads to the family,” he said, targeting the Gandhi family.

“This is called character assassination by innuendos and insinuations. When they do not have facts, this is what they do… All these raids and searches against various people are a ploy to divert the attention of the people from the real issues and the BJP’s failures,” Mr Singhvi claimed.

“The Congress feels corruption was its birthright and it had some kind of immunity from the law of the land just because they belonged to ‘first family’...Under the Modi government, those who are corrupt are being investigated and this has sent a sense of insecurity in the Congress quarters,” Mr Patra said.