Cong demands access to bank accounts, Sonia says efforts by PM to cripple party

Putting the spotlight on its precarious finances ahead of the Lok Sabha polls the Congress top brass on Thursday demanded immediate access to its frozen bank accounts to ensure a level playing field as Sonia Gandhi accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of a systematic effort to cripple the partyIn a rare press conference along with party chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi Sonia Gandhi said electoral bonds have on the one hand benefitted the BJP hugely and on the other finances of the principal opposition party are under determined assaultThis is truly unprecedented she assertedThe move to freeze the partys accounts the leaders said had not just impacted the Congress but democracy in IndiaWe can do no campaign work Our ability to fight elections has been damaged former Congress president Rahul Gandhi said while launching a scathing attack on the government over the issue of freezing of the partys accounts due to an Income Tax returns issueAll our bank accounts have been frozen We can do no campaign work we cannot support our workers we cannot support our candidates our leaders cannot fly from one part of the country to another they cant take a railway train and this has been literally two months before the election campaign he addedEight of the 11 accounts of the party are frozen sources saidWhat is interesting the former Congress president said is that there are institutions in this country that are supposed to protect the democratic framework of the country there are the courts there is the Election Commission and nothing is happeningHe said 20 per cent of India votes for the Congress which is not even able to pay Rs 2 for anythingWe have already lost a month We are unable to get slots for advertising we are unable to put advertisements in newspapers so what sort of democracy is this he saidIt has been orchestrated to cripple us in the elections Even if our bank accounts are unfrozen today a huge amount of damage has been done to Indian democracy Rahul Gandhi claimedTerming the freezing of accounts a criminal action against the Congress by the prime minister and Home Minister Amit Shah he said There is no democracy in India today and the idea that India is the worlds largest democracy is a complete lieThis is not the freezing of the Congress bank accounts this is freezing of the Indian democracy he saidKharge appealed to the constitutional institutions of the country that if they want free and fair elections then they should allow his party to access bank accounts without any restrictionThe Income Tax claim will ultimately be settled as per the decision of the court Political parties do not pay tax BJP never paid it even after this if we are being asked for it then we will wait for the final decision of the court he saidAdding her voice to the chorus of condemnation by party leaders Sonia Gandhi said the issue being taken up today is very very serious and affects not just the Congress but impacts our democracy itself most fundamentallyA systematic effort is underway by the prime minister to cripple the Indian National Congress financially Funds collected from the public are being frozen and money from our accounts is being taken away forcibly she saidHowever even under these most challenging circumstances we are doing our best to maintain the effectiveness of our election campaign she saidThe three senior leaders were flanked by Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh and AICC treasurer Ajay Maken at the press conferenceThe BJP has looted donations given to the Congress party by the common public by freezing our accounts and forcibly withdrawing Rs 11532 crore from them Maken allegedThe party in power Kharge said amassed funds through electoral bonds while freezing the Congress accounts to create hurdles for it in fighting pollsThose in power should not have direct or indirect control over constitutional bodies he said adding that those in power should not have monopoly over resourcesThe facts that have come out about electoral bonds after the intervention of the Supreme Court recently are very worrying Kharge saidA question mark has been put on the image of fair elections and healthy democracy that our country had built in the last 70 years the Congress chief saidUnder the electoral bonds scheme the ruling party pocketed more than Rs 6000 crore in its account he claimedConspiracy has been hatched to freeze the bank accounts of the main opposition party so that we are not able to contest the elections fairlythis is a dangerous game played by the ruling party he said adding that this will have farreaching effectsBut it is clear that creating obstacles in contesting elections by rendering any political party helpless in this manner can never be called a free and fair election Kharge saidThe Delhi High Court earlier this month refused to interfere with the Income Tax Appellate Tribunals order declining to stay a notice issued by the Income Tax department to the Congress party for recovery of outstanding tax of more than Rs 100 croreThe party had earlier said the IT tribunal order freezing its funds was an attack on democracy as it had come just ahead of the Lok Sabha electionsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever