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Kharge, Sonia, Rahul attack PM, say there’s a systematic effort to cripple Cong
The Congress leaders said the party was unable to book flights or advertisement spaces due to the shortage of funds arising out of the tax department’s move
NEW DELHI: The Congress party on Thursday rallied its top three leaders, party president Mallikarjun Kharge and former presidents Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, to launch a frontal attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing the government of virtually freezing the party’s bank accounts.
“A systematic effort is underway by the PM to cripple Indian National Congress financially,” former president Sonia Gandhi said at a rare joint Press conference on Thursday. Rahul Gandhi added: “This is a criminal action on the Congress by the PM and the home minister. This type of activity doesn’t happen without them in today’s India.”
This is the first time that the three top leaders held a joint Press conference.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge contrasted the Congress’s inability to operate its account to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) “amassing huge resources through electoral bonds and other means”.
“This can’t be called a free and fair election,” Kharge said.
“In the 75 years of India’s democratic system, no other party has amassed so much money (as the BJP). For the first time, the government is making money in various ways. Every meeting (of the BJP) is so expensive, Opposition parties can’t spend even 10% of it. I don’t want to say, how BJP has taken money from different parties. I hope that the truth will be divulged. I want to appeal, if you want an impartial election, our party’s account should be freed. BJP has never paid any income tax. We are waiting for the final decision of the law.”
Rahul appealed to the Election Commission to intervene. “The idea that India is a democracy is a lie. This is being orchestrated to cripple us in this election. Even if our bank accounts are unfrozen, huge damage has been done. It is ridiculous. It is the duty of all institutions to protect democracy. You are being robbed of a democratic asset, democratic architecture. This is criminal action by PM on Congress.”
Last month, the income tax department blocked ₹65 crore from Congress’ current accounts against the lien of ₹210 crore imposed on the Congress by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, virtually freezing the party’s accounts as the Congress couldn’t give the entire lien amount. The Congress went to Delhi high court but didn’t get any favourable order.
The party now plans to go to the Supreme Court.
While the Congress is still grappling with the IT department blocking ₹65 crore of a case related to FY 2017-18, the party got a fresh notice over IT discrepancies in 1994-95, which was the era of Sitaram Kesri.
“It is important to have a level playing ground for all parties and for all of them to have the same level of resources. It can’t be that the ruling party should have a monopoly over resources and control over media and IT, ED (Enforcement Directorate) and other autonomous bodies,” said Kharge.
“On one hand, the ruling party has received thousands of crores. On the other hand, the biggest opposition party’s bank accounts are frozen. This is being done to not allow other parties to contest.”
The Congress leadership said that they were unable to book flights for its leaders or advertisement spaces due to the shortage of funds arising out of the tax department’s move.
After party treasurer Ajay Maken underlined that the quantum of the disputed amount is just ₹14 lakh but the penalty is ₹210 crore, Rahul Gandhi said, “The is a punishment on our entire financial identity. There are institutions to protect our democratic framework. But the EC has not said, “wait a minute, you have frozen the bank account of the largest opposition party.” We have already lost a month. We are unable to prepare for our election.”
Maken asked what sort of a democracy India has if the opposition could not print pamphlets or book advertisements. “Last week, we got a notice for Sitaram Kesari’s term. Now, they will freeze more funds. Every political party is exempted from I-T. Why is the Congress targeted?”
In a statement, the Congress said, “The BJP has looted the donations given to the Congress party by the common public by freezing our accounts and forcibly withdrawing ₹115.32 crores from them. No political party, including the BJP, pays income tax, yet the Congress party’s 11 bank accounts were frozen. Why?”
“It also said, “For a notice for FY 2017-18, a lien on ₹210 crore was made in our 11 accounts in 4 Banks. The reason given is, that ₹14.49 lakh was received in cash (as donations made by our MPs to the Congress party), out of total receipt of ₹199 crore. This cash component is just 0.07% of the total donations. And the punishment was 106%!”
In her statement, Sonia Gandhi said, “The issue we are taking up today is extremely serious. This issue affects not just the Congress, but impacts our democracy most fundamentally. A systematic effort is underway by the PM to cripple the INC financially. Funds from the public are frozen and money from our accounts is being taken away forcibly. However, even under these most challenging circumstances, we are doing our very best to maintain the effectiveness of our poll campaigning.”
The BJP rejected the criticism. BJP president JP Nadda said the Congress’s top leadership ranted against Indian democracy and institutions because the party was going to be totally rejected by the people. “They are conveniently blaming their irrelevance on ‘financial troubles’. In reality, their bankruptcy is moral and intellectual, not financial. Instead of correcting their own errors, Congress is blaming authorities for their troubles. Be it the ITAT or the Delhi HC, they have asked the Congress to comply with the rules, pay the taxes due but the Party never did so,” Nadda said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
