New Delhi: Reacting to the State Bank of India’s plea before the Supreme Court seeking more time to disclose electoral bonds’ details, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government of using the bank to hide its alleged “dubious dealing”.
Weeks after the Supreme Court ordered India’s largest bank to disclose the details of bonds encashed by political parties, the SBI moved the apex court and sought an extension of the deadline till June 30.
The court had ordered the bank to furnish the details by March 6.
Mallikarjun Kharge called the electoral bonds scheme opaque and undemocratic. He said the BJP government is using the bank as a shield.
“The Modi government is using the largest bank of our country as a shield to hide its dubious dealings through Electoral Bonds,” he said.
Kharge said the BJP wants the SBI to share the details after June 30, by when the Lok Sabha elections would be over.
“But the BJP wants it to be done after Lok Sabha elections. The tenure of this Lok Sabha will end on 16th June and SBI wants to share the data by 30th June,” Kharge said.
He claimed the BJP was the biggest beneficiary of the scheme.
“Isn’t the government conveniently hiding the BJP’s shady dealings where contracts of highways, ports, airports, power plants etc. were handed over to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cronies in lieu of these opaque electoral bonds,” he asked.
“Experts say that the 44,434 automated data entries of donors can be divulged and matched in just 24 hours. Why does the SBI then need 4 more months to collate this information?” he said.
“Congress party was crystal clear that the Electoral Bonds scheme was opaque, undemocratic and destroyed the level playing field. But the Modi government, PMO and FM bulldozed every institution – RBI, Election Commission, Parliament and Opposition to fill BJP’s coffers,” Kharge alleged.
Kharge said the Modi government is trying to use SBI to bulldoze the Supreme Court’s judgement.
Congress MP Manish Tewari said the Supreme Court should not allow the SBI to “get away with its chicanery on Electoral Bonds”.
“People before the General Elections must know who got what from whom & whether there was any prima-facie quid pro quo involved?” he said.
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