Congress slams PM Modi over his remarks on electoral bonds issue

The Congress on Monday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his remarks on the electoral bonds issue claiming that while the corruption of his government had been known for a while the setback is that there are now hard numbers to prove itPrime Minister Modi on Sunday rejected the suggestion that the electoral bond issue caused a setback to his government saying no system is perfect and any shortcoming could be improved upon reported PTIIn an interview with a TV channel he also said those who are dancing over the matter will repent it reported PTITaking to social media Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh attacked Modi over his remarks and charged Every single day the prime minister scales new heights of hypocrisy and plumbs new depths of dishonestyThe prime minister has fully lied to the nation in his latest interview to a Tamil television channel He claims that where funds have come from how they are being used is only known due to the Electoral Bond Scheme instituted by him Ramesh said and put forward relevant factsThe Electoral Bond Scheme was designed to be fully anonymous In other words Modi wanted to hide from the public the details of where funds have come from to political parties and how they are being used he allegedEvery single day the Prime Minister scales new heights of hypocrisy and plumbs new depths of dishonestyThe Prime Minister has fully lied to the nation in his latest interview to a Tamil television channel He claims that ldquowhere funds have come from how they are being usedrdquo ishellip pictwittercomOO67NaKgm7mdash Jairam Ramesh Jairam_Ramesh April 1 2024For six years between 2018 and 2024 not a single detail of which party got funds from which donor was revealed to the public Ramesh said in a post on XIn 2024 the Supreme Court intervened to reject the electoral bond scheme as unconstitutional Up until the last day in court the Modi government tried to defend the anonymity of the scheme the Congress leader saidFinally the Supreme Court demanded that the SBI publish the details of who donated to which party he notedStill the remotecontrolled SBI lied to the court saying it did not collect this information Then it requested three months time to collate the data conveniently seeking an extension until after the election It was only the Supreme Courts strong intervention that forced the SBI to release the data publicly within days Ramesh said in a post on XHe alleged that the SBI was lying in the Supreme Court when it demanded a threemonth extension to match donor data with the political partiesIt took our team five lines of Python code and less than fifteen seconds to match each donor with the political party they donated to he saidAs for the PMs question of what have I done that I should face a setback due to Electoral Bonds Mr Modi the data has revealed your party and Governments monumental corruption Ramesh allegedHe claimed that Rs 4 lakh crores worth of contracts projects and environmental clearances can be linked to thousands of crores in electoral bond donations made by corporate donors to your party The Government of India has been reduced to a supermarket Chanda Do Dhanda LoAt least 40 EDITCBI raids on firms have been followed by hefty electoral bond donations by these firms to the BJP The prime minister and his cronies have been engaged in a systematic hafta vasuli Ramesh allegedThe corruption of the Modi Sarkar has been known for a while now the setback is that there are now hard numbers to prove it Unfortunately we can expect the prime minister to continue his fulltime job of lying to the Indian people to cover it up the Congress leader said in a post on XIn his interview PM Modi said Tell me what have we done that I should see it as a setback I firmly believe that those dancing over it bond details and taking pride in it are going to repentThe prime minister said it is due to the electoral bond system put in by his government that the sources of funding and its beneficiaries could be found outIf a trail is available today it is because of the presence of bonds he said asking if any agency can tell about the sources of funding and their beneficiaries for the polls before 2014 the year he came to powerNo system is perfect There can be shortcomings which could be improved upon he saidWith inputs from PTI