Former Union Minister and BJP MP Anurag Thakur Friday termed the National Herald “an ATM for Congress” and “yet another model of corruption” put in place by the Opposition party post-Independence into which CMs of Congress-ruled states funnel money through government ads.
Claiming that National Herald “is no longer a daily newspaper”, Thakur said at a press conference, “Technically, it’s a printed newspaper, but some papers exist only in name. They’re not printed, not sold, not distributed, not seen, and certainly not read. The National Herald seems to fall into that category. In Congress-ruled states, CMs don’t offer donations to this paper but instead provide funds in the form of government ads.”
“But that raises a serious question as to on what grounds are these ads are given. Prominent daily newspapers with multiple editions across various districts receive barely any funding, while this weekly paper, National Herald, is handed a fortune… This reflects what can be described as Congress’s model of corruption where a weekly newspaper receives more financial support than major dailies, despite inconsistent or minimal publication,” he added.
“CMs of Congress-ruled states are issuing ads to National Herald… on what basis? In my own state of Himachal Pradesh, leading daily newspapers receive mere pennies, but National Herald receives silver coins,” he said.
With ED filing a chargesheet against Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and others on charges of money laundering in the National Herald case, Thakur asserted that the investigation has been upheld as valid, and the attached assets have exposed yet another aspect of Congress’ “model of corruption”.
Instead of waiving off the loans of 1,000 shareholders of Associated Journals Limited (AJL), the Congress, Thakur alleged, formed a new company whose shareholders were two former presidents of the party and this company waived off a loan of Rs 90 crore by paying only Rs 50 lakh, so that property worth Rs 2,000 crore could be grabbed.
“The entire Congress ecosystem gets rattled as soon as they hear National Herald… this is natural because they have been caught red-handed yet again… since Independence, not just one but multiple scams will come to the fore. But this is a model which no one is able to digest,” he said.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
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