New Delhi, March 21 : The Congress, led by its top brass including party president Mallikarjun Kharge, MPs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, and treasurer Ajay Maken, held a press conference in the national capital on Thursday and claimed that its funds were frozen by the Income Tax Department to cripple the party’s election campaign.
“The freezing of Congress’ funds is a criminal action and it has been done with the blessings of the country’s top leadership.It is a clear attempt to cripple our election campaign,” Rahul Gandhi said.
Rahul Gandhi told the media that the party doesn’t have money to fund its campaign.”We don’t have money to buy train tickets, we don’t have money to send our leaders for campaigns,” he said.
The Congress MP also questioned the timing and “quantum of punishment”, saying that the government “has imposed a penalty of Rs 200 crore for an old case of Rs 14 lakh”.
He also urged constitutional bodies not to remain “mute spectators” and to take a proactive role in ensuring a level playing field to “save the democracy”.
Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge spoke about the appalling situation over “discriminatory” behaviour by the ruling dispensation and said that there has been a concerted attempt to “derail the Congress’ election campaign”.
“Elections call for a level playing field, but the present dispensation has blocked our funds, this will have foreseen consequences,” Kharge told the media.
Further taking on the government over electoral bonds, he said, “The Supreme Court declared these bonds illegal and unconstitutional but the ruling party has gathered thousands of crores via electoral bonds while bank accounts of the Congress party have been frozen to stymie our election campaign.”
Kharge accused the ruling party of binding Congress’ hands by blocking its funds and also slammed the BJP for being the biggest recipient of electoral bonds.
The Congress chief also accused the ruling party of “coercing companies to donate in their favour via electoral bonds”.
“I appeal to the Constitutional bodies to let the Congress party access its bank accounts without any restrictions,” Kharge said while underscoring that political parties have stayed out of tax ambit but the Congress is “being made a scapegoat for political gains”.
Congress leader Sonia Gandhi also hit out at the government and said that the party’s funds have been frozen and also, possibly being taken away.
“Electoral bonds were declared unconstitutional, it has benefitted the BJP hugely.But, the finances of the main opposition party are under a determined assault.
We all believe this is unprecedented and undemocratic,” said the veteran Congress leader.
Congress treasurer Ajay Maken accused the BJP and Centre of derailing the Congress campaign, just months before the Lok Sabha elections by blocking its access to party funds.
“We can’t use Rs 285 crore lying in our (bank) accounts, we can’t use our own money for funding our advertising and publicity campaigns,” Maken said.
He further said that the ruling party wants to make Congress a “handicap” in the run-up to the 2024 elections and tailor the situation “for its benefit”.
Maken told the media that all political parties enjoy immunity from taxation but Congress “is being targeted to provide the ruling party an advantage”.
He also said that an old case was raked up by tax agencies to impose “unexplained and harsh penalties” on Congress.
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