New Delhi: The Opposition parties on Friday described the electoral bonds scheme as the “biggest scam of independent India” with the Congress alleging that the data shared by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on the scheme on Thursday was “incomplete”.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said- “Na khaunga, na khane doonga”. Today it has been exposed by the Supreme Court how BJP made money out of electoral bonds.”
During a press conference in Bengaluru, he lamented that there was no level playing ground for the Congress party when its accounts were frozen on the instructions of the BJP-led government.
”They (BJP) instructed I-T people to do this. Our nearly Rs 300 crores are frozen. How can we go for elections in this? Our accounts are closed but their accounts are open. Where is the level playing ground? I demand an inquiry at the highest level into this. Unless the truth comes out, their accounts should also be frozen..,” he demanded.
Addressing a press conference in Maharashtra’s Palghar district, Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh said his party has been seeking an appointment with the ECI since last year, but has not been given an audience yet. “Why and of whom is the ECI scared to meet the Opposition parties,” he asked.
Referring to the electoral bonds data published on the Election Commission’s website, Mr Ramesh said the details were incomplete. “There are four categories in the list – those who purchased the electoral bonds and got government contracts, those who purchased bonds due to threat of investigating agencies, those who purchased bonds as bribes to get contracts and purchasing through shell companies,” he said.
“This is the biggest scam of independent India. We have the option to move the Supreme Court…We will go to the people’s court,” he said.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut accused the BJP of being a core beneficiary of the electoral bonds purchased by the gaming and gambling companies. He charged the BJP with being involved in the “biggest scam in the country”.
Senior RJD leader Manoj Jha claimed that the data on electoral bonds has proved that the ruling BJP at the Centre is “the most corrupt political party in the history” of the country.
Jha, the party’s national spokesperson, also claimed that the data, which has been put up on the Supreme Court’s website, flies in the face of the “nationalistic pretensions” of the BJP, while lending credence to the charge that central investigating agencies were being misused for political purposes.
CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury told reporters in Delhi , “We opposed it when we were in Parliament saying that it is like providing legal status to political corruption…Have you ever heard that any action has been taken against the electoral bond that has been bought?”
He said that the Supreme Court has said that the SBI should provide the number of every bond, then it will be clear who got which bond.
Agencies

  BJP, Congress, Election

Agencies