New Delhi, Nov 19 (UNI) Terming the 'Electoral Bond' as 'a way of legitimising bribery', the Congress on Tuesday continued its attack against Narendra Modi government and demanded to withdraw the scheme.
"This entire scheme stinks of a big scam and the government is deliberately being silent about it. Congress demand remains simple, to stop this scam from happening and to end this scheme as this is nothing but a way of legitimising bribery", said Gaurav Gogoi, Congress spokesperson and MP Supriya Shrinate.
The Congress had on Monday termed the Electoral Bond as a money laundering scheme and had alleged that the government ignored Reserve Bank of India's objection to introduce the scheme.
"From day one, institutions, political parties, individuals raised concerns that electoral bonds are a manner to legitimise bribery, institutionalise a quid pro quo where corporates donate anonymously to BJP and get favours from government in return", said Mr Gogoi.
He said that while the BJP has always maintained that this scheme enhances transparency, but the fact is completely the opposite.
"From day one, they have been covering up the true intentions of this scheme", he said.
"Yesterday we shared how BJP bulldozed the objections raised by RBI, today we want to share how it has come to light via media stories that how even the Election Commission had raised several objections to the scheme of electoral bonds", added the Cong spokesperson.
The grand old party alleged that the BJP has bulldozed the objections of the EC, failed to address the concerns of the EC and have gone so far as to even cover up their steps and errors in Parliament.
"The BJP government is wilfully and deliberately misleading the Parliament and through Parliament misleading the people of our country", Mr Gogoi charged.
Quoting from the letter written by the poll body, the Lok Sabha MP said that in 2017 itself, the Commission wrote to the Ministry of Law and Justice expressing their concern regarding this scheme.
"Subsequently, the Ministry of Law and Justice forwarded the complaint to Economic Affairs department", he said and added that the Commission said, "this is a retrograde step as far as transparency of donations is concerned”.
"Completely opposite of what BJP government has been claiming. It also says in section 2, subsection 3, 'it cannot be ascertained whether the political party has taken any donations in violation of provisions under Section 29-B of the RP Act 1951'", Mr Gogoi added.
He alleged that the Commission has raised this but the government has taken no action on this front.
"In fact they went on in Parliament Winter session 2018, then MoS Finance actually lied on the floor of the house and said that the Commission never complained to government.
He said that the media reports, however, described that "after this horrendous lie by the Minister (in Parliament), how certain high ranking officers in the BJP government then tried to coach the government as to how to get out of its own lie".
UNI KNA ADG 1935