Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national spokesperson and former union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad came down heavily on Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi alleging that they were directly involved in the National Herald Corruption case.

Soon after the Congress denounced the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) late night seizure of National Herald’s assets on Tuesday, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday referred to the action as the ‘sins of Gandhi family’ and said they are making up for their own wrongdoings.

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While addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters here on Wednesday, Prasad said, “The Congress Party not only controls the party legacy or the legacy of the freedom movement, it controls the property legacy of the party as well. They treat whatever movable or immovable property is there in the name of the party. as their own”.

Prasad further said, “I would like to clarify this. We have never disputed the fact that the Congress has a huge contribution in the freedom movement.

But they think that the legacy of the freedom movement is their family’s legacy and therefore the leader of the Congress party will be from their family. Secondly, things associated with the legacy of the freedom movement- the newspaper, the shares and the property they think will also belong to them. This is the crux of the whole issue. This is the new low in the democracy of India”.

“I have always said that (lok tantra lok laj se chalti hai) democracy works if people function with grace in public life. And the ways Congress functions in public life that is for everyone to see, like, pointing fingers and claiming that this is a pre-planned trick because BJP is not doing well in elections. Even Abhishek Babu (Manu Singhvi)  is saying this who knows law very well. What does this mean? Congress is losing elections everywhere. It is necessary to recall since when this case has been going on,” he added.

Elaborating further, Prasad explained that the National Herald was being used as a medium during the freedom struggle to put forward the viewpoint of the top leaders of the freedom movement.

“So this is the reason that very prominent people bought shares and they have been given prominent properties everywhere. They have been given costly land parcels in Delhi’s Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, in Punjab’s Mohali, Mumbai, Lucknow, Patna and in other prominent places.

The newspaper stopped functioning. The properties were rented for commercial purposes. Crores were earned through rent. When it was almost certain that the paper will not be published then the question surfaced about the handing over of the properties. And it was decided that all the properties will be transferred to the family. And I will explain how that is being done,” he pointed out.

Prasad added, “In 2008, Congress Party gave a loan of 90 crore to Associated Journals to publish National Herald. This 90 crore was to be returned. So an offer was made to Associated Journal that the loan will be waived off completely if 99 percent shares were transferred to Gandhi Family. And to facilitate that without consulting the other shareholders an entity called Young India has been formed. Directors of this Young India were Rahul Gandhi who owned 36 percent share, and 36 percent Sonia Gandhi and some other people who are no longer there.

So, this arrangement  was done to transfer 99 percent shares  for not returning the loan of 90 crores. And the Party was given Rs 50 lakhs for non receipt of the payment of 90 crores. The Congress party waved off 90 crores and transferred the 99 percent shares to the mother and son.

I would like to point out three things that are immoral. The properties given by the government have been taken over by individuals and they have stopped the publishing of a newspaper that has such a huge legacy”.