Congress’s Jairam Ramesh targets PM Modi over electoral bonds scheme

Hailing the judiciary, he said, "Only the Supreme Court's strong stance forced the SBI to reveal who donated how much to which political party."

New Delhi: Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in the country, Congress general secretary-in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh on Monday launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the electoral bonds scheme.

“Statement on the PM’s repeated attempts to take credit for the disclosure of the donors in the Electoral Bond Scheme. In truth, the PM introduced anonymity to electoral financing, presided over large-scale corruption, and attempted to cover it up through the SBI,” the Congress leader lashed out at the PM.

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Hailing the judiciary, he said, “Only the Supreme Court’s strong stance forced the SBI to reveal who donated how much to which political party.”

Taking to social media platform X, he said, “Every day the Prime Minister scales new heights of hypocrisy and plums new depths of dishonesty.” In an interview with ANI, PM Modi accused the opposition parties of “spreading lies” over the electoral bonds scheme, which has been struck down by the Supreme Court, and said, “Everyone will regret it when there is an honest reflection”.

PM Modi said the electoral bonds scheme was aimed at curbing black money in elections and said the opposition wants to run away after making allegations.

He said of the 16 companies that gave donations after action by probe agencies, only 37 per cent of the amount went to the BJP and 63 per cent to opposition parties opposed to the BJP.

The Prime Minister said the country has been pushed towards “black money” in elections and everyone will regret it. In his first detailed reaction to the electoral bonds scheme, PM Modi, who has been on a hectic campaign for the Lok Sabha polls, said the scheme should also be viewed as a success story as it has allowed the trail to show who had made contributions to political parties through the scheme.

He also said there is a lot scope of for improvement in the scheme.

“There has been a discussion in our country for a long time that (through) black money a dangerous game is there in elections. The play of black money in the country’s elections ends, this discussion has been going on for a long time. Money is spent in elections; no one can deny this. My party also spends, all parties, and candidates spend and money has to be taken from people. I wanted we try something, how can our elections be free from this black money, how can there be transparency? There was a pure thought in my mind. We were looking for a way. We found a small way, we never claimed that this was the absolute way,” he said.

He said there was debate in Parliament on the electoral bonds scheme when the relevant bill was passed and some of those who are now commenting on it had supported it.