Centre has intimidated country through ED, CBI: Gehlot

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Friday said there is an undeclared emergency in the country and the Centre has intimidated the entire nation through ED, CBI and Income Tax Department.

His comments came shortly after senior Congress leader D Shivakumar said the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued fresh summons to him. The agency asked the former Karnataka minister to appear before it in Delhi on Friday in a money laundering case.

The ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) are also probing INX Media money laundering and corruption cases against senior Congress leader P Chidambaram.

"Those who win elections should work with a big heart. Everyone should work together. Is Modi's government doing it? They have frightened the whole country through Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax Department and CBI be it industrialists, businessmen, bureaucrats or anyone else," Gehlot told reporters at the Congress state headquarters here.

The chief minister claimed the people of the country are living in fear.

"There is an atmosphere of an undeclared emergency in the country. The new generation has to understand this," he said.

Gehlot claimed the country is going through a recession and the Centre is not doing enough to tackle it.

"There is a period of severe recession in the entire country. People are committing suicides. Earlier, only farmers used to commit suicide. Now businessmen, industrialists, small and big ones, have started committing suicide," he said.

"One million people in the automobile sector have lost their jobs. A well known company in the country making biscuits has fired 10,000 people due to the imposition of GST," he said.

"This central government does not understand anything. The exemptions which were announced recently are not enough. They are late and they are not enough. So they have to think how to get the economy back on track," he added.

The chief minister also claimed that the law and order situation is deteriorating due to people losing their jobs.

Accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of misleading people with his speeches, Gehlot said the truth is different from what people are being told.

"The new generation will have to understand who is right and who is wrong. The reality is different. Modi ji, who specialises in speaking, speaks such words that people are misguided and misled. We want the country's economy to be strong and the country should be strong," he said.