A file photo of Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal during the press conference.
| Photo Credit: ANI
The Congress on Friday demanded a Supreme Court-monitored probe into allegations that Central agencies were “misused” by the BJP to “extort” donations for the ruling party and asked for a White Paper on the ruling party’s finances.
In a letter to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, party general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal referred to the recent report by a news portal in which it was alleged that between 2018-19 and 2022-23, at least 30 companies that were facing searches, raids or investigations by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Income Tax Department (I-T) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) donated ₹335 cores to the BJP.
“Of these [30] firms, 23 companies, which gave a total of ₹187.58 crore to the party during this period, had never donated any amount to the BJP between 2014 and the year of the raid. At least four of these companies donated a total of ₹9.05 crore within four months of the visit from Central agencies. At least six of these firms, which were already donors to the BJP, handed out a heftier amount in the months following the searches. Six other firms, which had donated to the BJP each year before, faced Central action after they skipped donations in one financial year,”Mr. Venugopal said.
‘Seeks rebuttal’
The Congress leader dared the Finance Minister to issue a point-by-point rebuttal to the charges if the BJP has nothing to hide. In a separate post on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), the Congress termed the ED the “extortion department” of the BJP.
“Would you come up with a “White Paper” on BJP’s finances, not just the sources, but how you coerced corporate firms to donate, by misusing investigative agencies against them? If you are unwilling to come up with a factual explanation, then are you willing to present yourself for a Supreme Court monitored investigation in these dubious deals to loot donation for the BJP?” Mr. Venugopal asked.
“Mr. Modi often refers to our country as ‘mother of democracy’. Is extortion and blackmail to force funds [for] the ruling party by weakening autonomous investigative agencies, part of ‘mother of democracy’? Does looting the donation of the principal Opposition party, through trivial Income-Tax notices, part of the ‘mother of democracy’?” he asked in his letter.
Releasing the three-page letter at a press conference at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) headquarters, Congress communications chief Jairam Ramesh said, “It is a clear case of hafta wasooli (extortion). These are not electoral bonds which also have been held unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, these are the ED bonds, CBI bonds, Income-Tax bonds”.
Mr. Ramesh said the Congress doesn’t have a problem if the governments acts against a company that breaks the law. “If there is evidence to show that the law is broken, please investigate. But if you use investigation as a means of black…will the BJP return this money?”
Taking to X, senior leader Rahul Gandhi said, “Do you know about the Prime Minister’s ‘Donate, take Bail and Business’ scheme? In the country, the Prime Minister is doing ‘donation business’ by misusing ED, I-T and CBI like ‘vasuli bhai’”.