The Congress on Wednesday claimed that the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) chargesheet against Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case merely reflected the government’s panic and moral bankruptcy, and asserted that it would not be intimidated by such threats.
In a detailed post in Hindi, AICC General Secretary Jairam Ramesh provided an explanation regarding the financial loan extended to Associated Journals Limited (AJL), the publisher of National Herald, and dismissed as false the claims that Young Indian had seized over Rs 5,000 crore of AJL’s properties.
“You have been in power for 11 years, you have no evidence, no proof, nothing – otherwise you would not have been forced to wait for the 365th day,” Ramesh said.
“This shows not only the government’s panic but also their mental and moral bankruptcy. Modi ji, this is the Congress party. The blood of Rahul ji and Sonia Gandhi’s own people is mixed in the soil of this country, show these false threats to someone else,” he added.
“We will continue to raise our voice loudly against your failures, your collusion with capitalists, your politics of hatred, how unemployed and helpless you have made this country, what is the condition of women, Dalits, backward, tribals under your nose,” he further remarked.
Congress leader Pawan Khera, in a video post on X, compared the current situation to the British era, claiming that the British once feared National Herald, just as the RSS does today.
“The British were irritated before 1947 with National Herald, the Gandhi family, and the Congress party, and now the Sanghis are getting irritated in the year 2025. The Gandhi family and the Congress party were the voice of the oppressed then and still are today,” Khera said.
“Filing a money laundering case against a not-for-profit company in which not even a single rupee was transacted and no property was transferred shows Modi’s fear,” Khera added.
Ramesh explained that the claims surrounding AJL and Young Indian, as well as the Gandhi family’s alleged financial gains, are untrue. He highlighted the history of AJL and its publication National Herald, which was founded by figures such as Jawaharlal Nehru, Ravi Ahmed Kidwai, and Purushottam Das Tandon.
“National Herald was the voice of the freedom struggle when most newspapers used to print the views of the British. National Herald was also banned by the British government,” Ramesh pointed out.
He went on to explain that AJL had a substantial debt, which led the Congress party to extend a loan of Rs 90 crore between 2002 and 2011. This loan was used to pay for employee severance packages, tax liabilities, and utilities.
Regarding the formation of Young Indian, Ramesh clarified that AJL’s operations ceased due to its debt, and the debt was converted into equity, transferred to Young Indian.
“This is a common practice, the government itself has converted the debt of many companies into equity in NCLT. Young Indian is a not-for-profit company, and it is a Section 25 not-for-profit company – in which the shareholders cannot get even a single penny of profit, dividend, salary etc,” he said.
Ramesh also emphasised that Young Indian did not take over AJL, and all assets and income still belong to AJL. He refuted the claim that AJL holds properties worth Rs 5,000 crores, noting that the IT Department has valued AJL’s properties at just Rs 359 crores.
Ramesh further explained the timeline of the case, beginning with Subramanian Swamy’s 2013 court filing and concluding with the chargesheet filed by the ED on 9 April 2025.
“This fake chargesheet was made public today,” he said.
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