National Herald case: 'Will summons be issued to Nehru'

NEW DELHI: After the Enforcement Directorate summoned Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case, Shiv Sena in its mouthpiece Saamana took a dig at the central government and asked whether summons would be issued to former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru too. In its editorial, Saamana, the Shiv Sena said "the political importance of the National Herald, started by Pandit Nehru, has lost its importance long ago, but the politics over it still continues".

It emphasized that National Herald was started as a mission for freedom struggle and not as a business to earn money. "This newspaper was started for the freedom struggle of the country and the prime objective was to drive out the British from the country. Nehru started this newspaper in the year 1937. At that time Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel were the main pillars of this newspaper. The Herald was popular at that time as an outspoken spokesperson for the freedom struggle," the editorial said.

It said the National Herald case does not require much importance now. "Subramanian Swamy alleged that a company, which had no business, became the owner of Rs 2,000 crore instead of Rs 50 lakh. Motilal Vora, Oscar Fernandes, Suman Dubey and Sam Pitroda were also made accused among other directors of this company, but Sonia and Rahul remained in limelight. There was no money laundering anywhere in this entire case. But still, ED entered into it," said the Shiv Sena mouthpiece.

The editorial further said, "In the National Herald case, the transaction was done to repay the loan and not for misconduct. In this entire episode, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have been made accused. Will a few summons in the name of Nehru be pasted on his memorial? Some souls will calm down only after Pandit Nehru gets notice from ED and CBI." The ED on Friday issued fresh summons to Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case, which was closed by the investigating agency in 2015 and asked the Congress MP to join the investigation on June 13.

Earlier, the central investigating agency had summoned the leader and his mother and Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi to join the probe on June 8. ED's move followed the questioning of senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress Treasurer Pawan Bansal in April this year.

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