Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) [India], April 19 (ANI): The Himachal Pradesh Youth Congress staged a protest outside the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office in Shimla on Friday, expressing strong opposition to the central government and its investigating agencies over the chargesheet filed against Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case.

Led by state Youth Congress president Chhatar Singh Thakur, the demonstrators accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government of misusing agencies like the ED to suppress political opposition and target the Congress leadership.

Speaking to the media during the protest, Chhatar Singh Thakur said, 'Whenever democracy strengthens in this country, the central government begins misusing its agencies to disrupt the environment. As far as the National Herald is concerned, it is a newspaper of the Congress party, we have run it and we will continue to run it. This is an attempt to silence the newspaper. We will keep it alive and will not let the voice of democracy be suppressed. These are their attempts to render it inactive, but they will never succeed.'

Thakur went further in his criticism of the ED and BJP said that the ED works like it is working like for BJP.

'I have said it before, just merge the headquarters of the Enforcement Directorate and the Bharatiya Janata Party, because there is no difference left between the two.' He said.

Warning of future action, he said, 'If they do not withdraw the notices issued against Rahul Gandhi, then in the coming days, we will gherao (surround) the BJP headquarters as well.'

He also took aim at the timing of investigative actions, alleging political motivation behind the agencies' functioning. 'When elections are over, these agencies disappear. They only reappear when the government is in crisis, or when there's a need to divert attention--like when someone raises a voice, or drugs are caught at ports, or there's an attack in Pulwama. Otherwise, the only task these government agencies have left is to figure out how to murder democracy.'

The protest in Shimla is one of several being organized across the country by Youth Congress units as part of a coordinated campaign to push back against what the party views as politically motivated targeting of its leadership. The National Herald case, which has long been under investigation, saw renewed controversy after the ED filed a fresh chargesheet naming Sonia and Rahul Gandhi.

The Congress party maintains that the case is baseless and is being used as a tool of political vendetta by the Modi government. (ANI)