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Congress attacks FM Sitharaman over her ‘electoral bonds will be back’ remark

Apr 20, 2024 04:30 PM IST

Listing out the Congress’s claims of “PayPM scam’, he claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi “used four patterns for corruption”

Congress MP Jairam Ramesh on Saturday drew a sharp criticism to Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s remarks on electoral bonds during an interview with HT where she said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre would bring back the scheme if elected back to power.

Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh and Supriya Shrinate addressing a press conference in New Delhi. (PTI Photo)
Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh and Supriya Shrinate addressing a press conference in New Delhi. (PTI Photo)

“Whether we go back for a review or not is to be seen, but we still have to do a lot of consultation with stakeholders and see what is it that we have to do to make or bring in a framework which will be acceptable to all, primarily retain the level of transparency and completely remove the possibility of black money entering into this. What the current scheme, which has been just thrown out by the Supreme Court, brought in was transparency,” Sitharaman had said in her interview.

Ramesh took to X in response and said, “FM Sitharaman has declared that if the BJP returns to power, they will bring back the electoral bonds [scheme] that the Supreme Courts declared unconstitutional and illegal. We know that the BJP looted 4 lakh crore of public money in the ‘PayPM scam’. Now they want to continue the loot.”

Listing out the Congress’s claims of “PayPM scam’, he claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi “used four patterns for corruption”, namely “Prepaid Bribes (Chanda Do, Dhanda Lo), Postpaid Bribes (Theka Lo, Rishvat Do), Post-raid Bribes (Hafta Vasooli i.e. Extortion), and shell companies with the total sum amounting to 4 lakh crores”.

“If they win and restore the electoral bonds scheme, how much will they loot this time? This is the most important election of our lifetime. Thankfully, as ground reports make clear that this corrupt brigade is on its way out,” he said.

Also Read: HT interview: Economy relevant to elections; people can see govt taking up issues of well-being, says Nirmala Sitharaman

Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal further said, “...Nirmala Sitharaman in an interview said that we will bring back electoral bonds and it was also said that when electoral bonds were introduced, they were introduced for the sake of transparency. This is exactly the opposite of what the Supreme Court said.”

“The Supreme Court has said that these are not transparent, they were brought in a non-transparent manner. Now the problem they are facing is that they have money for this election, but they know that they will need the money when they lose,” Sibal added.

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