Government blocking political activities, will face consequences: Congress

"They are trying to stop political activities of leaders. You can only suppress someone till a limit, and now, all limits have been crossed," Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel said.

The Congress on June 15 accused the BJP government of blocking political activities by preventing party workers from entering its headquarters and said the ruling dispensation will have to face consequences.

On the third consecutive day of former Congress president Rahul Gandhi's questioning by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the National Herald money-laundering case, the party's Chief Ministers Ashok Gehlot and Bhupesh Baghel said this was the first time in the country's history that a national party's offices were put out of bounds of its own workers.

"The atmosphere in the country is in front of everyone to see. I could not bring my own staff inside the AICC [All India Congress Committee] office. No one else is allowed. Political activists cannot enter their party offices. This is happening for the first time in the country," Mr. Baghel said.

"They are trying to stop political activities of leaders. You can only suppress someone till a limit, and now, all limits have been crossed," he said. Mr. Baghel's convoy was stopped by the Delhi Police on June 14 from visiting the Badarpur police station, where some party leaders were under preventive detention for violating prohibitory orders in central Delhi.

The Chhattisgarh Chief Minister said the BJP's "nationalism is imported", under which "whosoever raised a voice against them is being crushed". He said Rahul Gandhi was being targeted for questioning the government on issues of governance and public concerns.

Reiterating the charge that the ED summons against the Gandhis were "political vendetta", Mr. Gehlot said these past eight years would be marked as the "black chapter in India's history". He cautioned that the atmosphere in the country was "very dangerous" and recalled Gandhi's recent remarks made at a London event where he had said "kerosene had been poured all over India".