The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), on Thursday, accused the Congress of giving priority to saving its president Sonia Gandhi, who is being questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the National Herald newspaper linked money laundering case, than raising issues of public interest.

Addressing a press conference, AAP’s chief spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang said the Congress, which is the main Opposition party at the Centre, did not think it necessary to hold a protest against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led Union government for its “unconstitutional and anti-people policies”, but has directed its party workers to hold protests from block-level to the national-level across the country, only against ED’s summoning of party chief Sonia Gandhi.

“The BJP government is giving favours to corporate families and privatising government sectors. These decisions directly affect the common people, but are not a priority for the Congress party. Saving the Gandhi family has today become more important for the Congress, Kang said.

Similarly, the AAP spokesperson said workers of the 100-year-old  Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) are unhappy with party president Sukhbir Badal and are  demanding that he should step down. “But the Badal family is unwilling to relinquish control even though they know that they have been  rejected by the people,” he said.

Kang pointed out that when SAD was in power in Punjab in an alliance with the BJP-led Union government, they never raised the issue of Sikh prisoners’ release. Now that the future of the Badal family is in danger, they are diverting attention from their own performance to issues that did not concern them earlier, he added.

The AAP spokesperson accused the Congress and SAD of working only to protect the political future of their presidents instead of cornering the BJP government over its ‘dictatorial regime’ and anti-people policies. The BJP government has imposed a “predatory neo-liberal regime” which has heightened economic and social inequalities in the country. But the Congress and the Akali Dal are more occupied with protecting their political future.

It is only the AAP and its supremo Arvind Kejriwal who are conscious of their responsibility to defend democracy and regularly question the BJP-led union government about its anti-people policies, he said.