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Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday accused the Modi government of capturing democracy through extortion and financial terrorism and claimed that the party (BJP) received huge donations from at least 30 companies following raids by federal probe agencies: Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Income Tax Department.
Citing media reports, the Congress president claimed that the BJP received donations from at least 30 firms after it “misused” the CBI, ED and the I-T Department for raids against them.
“An autocratic Modi Government is capturing democracy through extortion and financial terrorism,” Kharge said.
The Congress president said that reports also show that some of these firms handed out a heftier amount to the BJP in the months following the searches.
Accusing the Modi government of tricking the nationalised banks into transferring ₹65 crore of the donation received by the Congress to the Income Tax Department, Kharge asked has the saffron party ever paid Income Tax.
“On one hand the Modi Government wants to steal the hard-earned money of people donated to the Congress party in good faith and on the other hand it threatens corporate firms through ED, CBI, I-T etc to grab lion’s share of donations!”, Kharge said.
“Looting Opposition and Blackmailing donors to fill BJP’s coffers is a dark phase for our democracy! We shall fight this tooth and nail – both in the court of law and in the court of the people,” he added.
Jairam Ramesh hits out at BJP, Amit Shah
Earlier in the day, Jairam Ramesh —Congress MP from Rajya Sabha— claimed that the Centre forced at least 30 companies to donate ₹335 crore to the BJP following ED, I-T raids. The Congress MP was citing reports from The News Minute and News Laundry.
This, he said, has been done in the last two to three years.
In a post on microblogging platform X (formerly known as Twitter), Ramesh alleged, “Dhanda ek ko, Chanda sab se! (business to one, donations from all).”
“Dr Manmohan Singh gave Indian citizens a unique ID through Aadhaar. Narendra Modi has given corporate India a new ID: Investigate-Donate,” the Congress MP said.
“From the ashes of I-T and ED, MoShah have innovated this new I-D model: Investigate, then get them to Donate,” he alleged, in a swipe at Home Minister Amit Shah.
Electoral Trusts and conventional political party donations allow some degree of transparency into campaign financing. It enables public disclosure of who funds which political party, and allows investigations like this one, he said.
“Mr. Modi’s pet project of electoral bonds did away with all transparency – the media cannot conduct such an investigation on the electoral bonds. It’s clear why: they don’t want people to have insight into the Pradhaan Mantri – Chanda Vasuli Yojana.”
“The only reason that we have any data at all is because the Electoral Bonds are only open in a few 15-day windows every year, and because the investigated businesses are desperate to make donations and appease MoShah instantaneously,” Jairam Ramesh alleged.
The Congress Rajya Sabha MP said putting this latest revelations in the perspective of recent developments, key questions emerge: “BJP got the majority (around 60%) of its declared campaign funds from Electoral Bonds. Currently we have no data on where the BJP got its Chanda from. When, as per the SC judgment last week, the electoral bonds data is released, how much more evidence of the I-D model can we expect to find?”
“The Prime Minister’s 2014 campaign promise was incomplete. It was always, ‘Na khaunga, na khaane dunga, par zabardasti chanda jama karunga’,” Ramesh said.
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