Praveen Chakravarty, chairperson, All India Professionals’ Congress and data analytics department, on Friday criticised the BJP government at the Centre for the Income Tax Department’s decision to freeze the bank accounts of the All India Congress Committee and the Youth Congress. He called it a “black day for democracy”.
Addressing journalists at the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee headquarters Sathyamurthy Bhavan, he sought to make a link between the Supreme Court declaring the electoral bonds unconstitutional and the decision to freeze the Congress’s bank accounts.
“This is the Narendra Modi government’s reaction to the Supreme Court’s ruling in the electoral bonds case,” he said. “The BJP received ₹6,565 crore from corporates through electoral bonds, whereas the Congress received the money in its bank accounts from four lakh party workers and members of the public as donations in the past three months. Why is the BJP allowed to keep its money when the scheme has been deemed unconstitutional,” he asked.
He also rejected the explanation that the decision to freeze the bank accounts was taken because of the 45-day delay in the filing of income tax return for 2018-19. “There is, no doubt, that the BJP is reacting to the Supreme Court’s ruling in the electoral bonds case by freezing the [Congress’s] accounts. Why should the Income Tax Department keep quiet for five years on the 45-day delay and freeze the bank accounts two months before the election,” he asked.
He also sought to clarify the decision of the Income Tax Tribunal to restore the bank accounts later in the day after Congress treasurer Ajay Maken made the startling disclosure about the freezing of the accounts in the morning. “There are some reports that the Congress can operate its accounts. These are wrong. We are being allowed to use the money other than ₹115 crore [which must be kept in banks]. We have to pay salaries and other bills. How can we do it? With the elections approaching, how is it fair to freeze our bank accounts? As our leader Rahul Gandhi has asked, why is Prime Minister Narendra Modi so afraid of the Congress,” he said.
On BJP Tamil Nadu president K. Annamalai’s explanation that the decision was taken by Income Tax Department and not by Mr. Modi, he said, “The Income Department is under the Central government and who is in power now? How can he say that Mr. Modi has nothing to do with it? This would affect the confidence of people when it comes to donating to the Congress.”
DMK deputy general secretary and Lok Sabha member Kanimozhi condemned the freezing of the bank accounts of Congress and Youth Congress. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), she said that the action had come merely weeks before the general elections in India, the largest democracy and, unmistakably reflects a fear of the BJP engaging in the electoral process democratically.
