New Delhi: The Information and Broadcasting Minister,Anurag Thakur, intensified his criticism today regarding the purported Chinese financing of both the Congress party and Indian news portal NewsClick, directing his focus on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
“All I would like to say Congress ka haath ‘NewsClick’ ke saath, ‘NewsClick’ ke upar China ka haath. Rahul Gandhi should apologise to the nation and say how did Rajiv Gandhi Foundation take money from China and where did it use this,” Thakur told reporters before heading to the BJP Parliamentary Party meeting this morning.
The Union Minister said that the Congress leader should apologise to the country in Parliament that China funds NewsClick and explain why his party supported it.
“He should tell the country who are the people who provided the funding and what was the compulsion that Congress was seen standing with ‘NewsClick’, Thakur said.
Yesterday, Thakur referenced an article published in The New York Times during a press briefing, alleging a linkage between China, the NewsClick platform, and the Congress party via what he termed an “anti-India umbilical cord”. The US publication’s Sunday edition had put forward allegations that Chinese corporations were financially backing the Indian news portal to spread Beijing’s propaganda.
Thakur alleged that China had signed an agreement with the Congress party and made payments to the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation during the regime of the UPA.
The US-based newspaper, The New York Times, claimed in its report that American businessman Neville Roy Singham had collaborated closely with Chinese governmental media mechanisms, financially supporting Chinese propaganda endeavours on a global scale.
Thakur further asserted that when the BJP-led central government initiated actions against NewsClick, the Congress party and other opposition groups rallied in its support.
Further, Thakur alleged that during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the Congress Party signed an agreement with China, under which payments were made to the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation.
“When Rahul and Sonia Gandhi went to China for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, they signed an agreement under which high-level exchange were to take place. Under their agreement, a payment was also made to Rajiv Gandhi Foundation. And the agreement was signed by none other than Xi Jinping and Rahul Gandhi,” Thakur said.
BJP member Nishikant Dubey had on Monday targeted Rahul Gandhi, whose membership in the Lok Sabha was restored earlier in the day, and demanded that the Election Commission should probe “funding of Congress by China”.
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