Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president K. Selvaperunthagai on Thursday said the Narendra Modi-led Union government has targeted its political opponents using agencies over the past 10 years.
In a statement, he said that before coming to power in 2014, Mr. Modi campaigned to eradicate corruption without any political interference if the BJP was voted to power. However, in the past 10 years of BJP rule, the Union government’s exchequer has incurred a loss to the tune of ₹41,000 crore in the procurement of Rafale fighter jets. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India’s report flagged an alleged scam of ₹7.5 lakh crore in allocating highway tenders. However, no action has been taken by the Central government, he said.
The “mega scam” of electoral bonds came to light only after the intervention of the Supreme Court of India and subsequently, the details of the donors were made public, said the Congress leader adding: “Nearly 33 companies that recorded zero profit for the past seven years have donated ₹576 crore through electoral bonds out of which ₹434 crore was donated to the BJP.”
He also alleged that those 33 companies had recorded a total loss of more than ₹1 lakh crore. Some of the firms made donations to the BJP after getting government contracts. In many instances, the donations were made by the companies soon after agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax Department and the Central Bureau of Investigation conducted checks.
Mr. Selvaperunthagai claimed that some pharma companies that were blacklisted by the Union Finance Ministry for manufacturing poor-quality medicines had also made donations to the BJP. “Instead of taking action against those firms, the BJP government targets the Opposition leaders using the Enforcement Directorate. Between 2014 and 2022, a total of 121 politicians, mostly from the Opposition, have been arrested by the ED and 839 criminal cases have been registered,” he said.
