NEW DELHI, Feb 16:
With the Congress alleging a plot to render it politically inactive by freezing its bank accounts, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Friday hit out at the opposition party leaders saying they will have plenty of time to ponder over their pet themes after India gives a third term to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, can travel abroad to talk on democracy, electronic voting machines (EVMs) and the judiciary once Modi wins a third term with a record margin, he said.
The Congress on Friday said the income tax authorities had frozen its main bank accounts, impacting all political activity. However, the accounts were later de-frozen by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal pending a further hearing next week.
The accounts were frozen over an unpaid tax demand of Rs 210 crore.
“According to Rahul Gandhi, as long as nothing happens to him, democracy is fine…If he loses elections, EVMs (electronic voting machines) don’t work, if his people are sent to jail (for their misdeeds) the judiciary doesn’t work,” Chandrasekhar, the Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, told PTI in an interview.
The minister said people are entitled to their points of view and added it is the voters who will judge whether the Indian democracy is functional, and not a party of dynasts or a coalition of dynasts.
“They (Congress) are entitled to their point of view on democracy…The people who judge whether Indian democracy is functional are certainly not a party of dynasts or a coalition of dynasts, it is the people of India who will come out in record numbers in 2024 elections and give an unprecedented third mandate to PM Modi,” he said.
General elections are due in April-May and Modi is seeking a third straight term after thumping victories in 2014 and 2019 polls. His party BJP did well beyond expectations in the recent assembly elections in states such as Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, giving confidence of his return.
Without getting into specific comments made by Congress treasurer Ajay Maken on the bank account freeze, Chandrasekhar said opposition party leaders have started their comments early and that they should wait till June.
“There will be plenty of time in the next five years for Ajay Maken to talk about democracy, and for Rahul Gandhi to travel abroad and talk about democracy, EVMs, and judiciary,” he said.
Maken had alleged that the income tax department had frozen the Congress party’s accounts on “flimsy grounds” to hit its political activity barely two weeks before the general elections were announced.
“They are starting early, I suggest that they save their energy and do it from June-July onwards for the next five years,” the minister said.
On the Supreme Court striking down electoral bonds as means for political funding, Chandrasekhar said any system that reforms the 65-70 years of quid pro quo between corrupt politicians and businessmen in cash dealings and brings it into the normal banking channels should be welcomed. (PTI)
“I certainly don’t want to comment too much on it because it’s obviously a Supreme Court judgment, but I certainly don’t see… I’m using it commonsensically, if something was underground, and there was a whole 65-70 years of quid pro quo between corrupt politicians and businessmen that was dealt with cash, any system that reforms it and brings it into the normal banking channels should be welcomed,” he said.
The minister said he would not like to comment on the issue as he is not a sophisticated lawyer, but noted that political funding should be through banking channels, be transparent, and “that is what the electoral bonds are trying to do”.
“So I will not say much more than that. I certainly think that by halting electoral bonds and halting the use of banking channels, normal formal banking and financial channels, this type of thing could only go back underground,” he said. (PTI)
The minister further said: “And we’ve always said that having black money funding politics, having cash money for funding politics is not a good thing for democracy. So what the Supreme Court has thought about this particular issue, they only have to answer and I will not say anything more on this issue.”
In a landmark verdict delivered within spitting distance of the Lok Sabha polls, the Supreme Court on Thursday scrapped the Modi government’s electoral bonds scheme of anonymous political funding, terming it “unconstitutional” and ordering disclosure of the names of the purchasers, value of the bonds and their recipients.
On the recent allegations raised by opposition members that southern states despite paying higher tax than northern states are not getting fair allocation, the minister termed it divisive politics and said political parties like the Congress are becoming increasingly irrelevant as they have nothing to offer in terms of new ideas for the people of India.
“They will try to resort to the same old politics of divide and rule that the British perfected” and Congress inheritors tried to take forward, he said.
“There is nobody in South India who has any problem with any of these so-called things except for those politicians who want a bigger and bigger ATM to siphon money from,” said Chandrasekhar, who is elected to the Rajya Sabha from the southern state of Karnataka. (PTI)
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