India’s Largest Opposition Party Targeted in Near Decade-Old Case Before Polls
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The Indian National Congress is the latest opposition political party targeted by the country’s federal fraud investigators before a high-stakes election in 2024.
The Enforcement Directorate said Tuesday it will seize property worth 7.5 billion rupees ($90 million) associated with the Congress party, the country’s main opposition, in a money laundering investigation that began in 2014. Party officials called the move a misuse of power by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.
India is in the throes of a frenetic election campaign, with five states holding polls this month ahead of nationwide voting in the summer of next year. While the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is widely seen as winning the most votes in the general elections, it’s facing a re-energized opposition, which has formed an alliance to take on Modi in the polls.
The financial crimes agency last month arrested an opposition lawmaker from Aam Aadmi Party, which governs Delhi, home to India’s capital. It also sought to question the chief minister, who is from the same party, over allegations of fraud. The party has accused the BJP of carrying out a witch hunt against Modi’s critics.
The Enforcement Directorate said Tuesday its latest action relates to a complaint filed with Delhi authorities in 2014 against two firms, Associated Journals Ltd. and Young Indian, involving alleged money laundering. Malikararjun Kharge, president of the Congress party, is a director in both the firms.
The assets in question are related to the newspaper National Herald, which was started in the 1930s by Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister from the Congress party.
The agency alleged individuals associated with the two firms acquired properties worth millions of dollars at subsidized rates and misappropriated assets.
Kharge said Tuesday the ED’s action was politically motivated.
“This pattern of misuse of agencies during elections by the BJP establishment is not new and now stands fully exposed before the entire nation,” Kharge said in a post on social media platform X.
Ravi Shankar Prasad, a senior BJP leader, said the probe will continue despite the opposition’s allegations. “All the initiatives which they have taken in case of corruption have been vetted by the judiciary with evidence,” he said at a media briefing Wednesday.
The Congress party is led by Rahul Gandhi, who is trying to divide the BJP’s mainly Hindu voter base by highlighting issues of social caste discrimination, poverty and unemployment.
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