NEW DELHI, Apr 15: The Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday called Prime Minister Narendra Modi the “mastermind” of the electoral bonds “scam” and said after the latter was “caught” he was giving interviews to claim that everyone would regret its discontinuation.
“This is the biggest extortion scheme of the world and PM Modi is the mastermind of it. Ask the PM to explain that one day CBI inquiry starts and immediately after that they (the BJP) get the money. And immediately after that, the CBI inquiry is scrapped. Big contracts, infrastructure contracts — the company gives money and immediately after that they are given the contract,” the Congress leader said.
“The important thing in electoral bond is — names and dates. If you see the names and dates you will know that when they (donors) gave the electoral bond, right after that contract was given to them or CBI inquiry was withdrawn against them. Pradhan Mantri pakade gaye hain isiliye ANI ko interview de rahe hain (Prime Minister is giving interview to ANI after he was caught),” Rahul Gandhi told the media on Monday.
The Congress leader was reacting to Mr Modi’s interview with news agency ANI, where the latter spoke about the electoral bonds scheme, which was struck down by the Supreme Court on February 15 this year calling it “unconstitutional.”
In the interview, Mr Modi had claimed that the electoral bonds scheme was aimed at curbing black money in elections and that “everyone will regret it when there is an honest reflection.” He also slammed the Opposition for “spreading lies” over electoral bonds.
On this, Rahul Gandhi challenged the Prime Minister to explain how some companies donated to the BJP through electoral bonds immediately after they came on the radar of central probe agencies.
The electoral bonds were interest-free banking instruments which could be purchased by citizens or corporates in India for their choice of political parties. The opposition parties criticised the scheme as it kept the identity of the donor anonymous.
