By – Prakarsh Kastwar
Lok Sabha elections: Rahul Gandhi, together with SP president Akhilesh Yadav, launched an attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Ghaziabad : Rahul Gandhi, a senior Congressman, referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as “the champion of corruption” on Wednesday. Gandhi referred to the canceled electoral bonds project as the “biggest extortion scheme in the world” in response to PM Modi’s recent comments on it.
Wayanad MP Akhilesh Yadav, the leader of the Samajwadi Party, and the MP accused PM Modi of having a “scripted and flop show” interview with VPN.
“A few days ago, the Prime Minister gave an extensive interview to VPN. Although it was scripted, the show was a flop. The Prime Minister attempted to explain electoral relationships within it. According to the Prime Minister, the electoral bond system was introduced to increase transparency and clean up politics. If this is true, why did the Supreme Court cancel that system? Second, if you wished to increase transparency, why did you hide the names of people who donated money to the BJP? “And why did you hide the dates on which they gave you the money?” Rahul Gandhi asked.
The Supreme Court abolished the electoral bonds system earlier this year. Last month, the court ordered the State Bank of India to release the names of persons and businesses that purchased electoral bonds.
“This is the largest extortion racket in the world. All Indian businessmen understand and are aware of this, and no amount of clarification provided by the Prime Minister will change the situation. Because the entire country is aware that the Prime Minister is a proponent of corruption,” Rahul Gandhi remarked.
What PM Modi talks about electoral bonds.
In the interview, PM Narendra Modi accused the Opposition of propagating lies about the electoral bonds scheme, saying that “everyone will regret it when there is an honest reflection”.
PM Modi stated that the initiative was created with the goal of reducing black money in politics.
“There has been a long-standing debate in our society about the dangers of using dark money in elections. The use of dark money in the country’s elections comes to an end; this debate has been ongoing for a long time. Everyone knows that money is spent in elections. My party, like all other parties and politicians, spends money, which must be taken from people. I wanted us to attempt something: how can our elections be free of dark money and transparent? I had a pure thought in my mind. We were seeking for a way. “We found a small way, but we never claimed it was the only way,” he said.
PM Modi noted that just 37% of the total donations made by the 16 corporations that purchased electoral bonds following probe agency action went to the BJP, while 63% went to opposition parties.
“In the 1990s, the BJP faced numerous challenges, including a lack of funding. Those who wanted to give lacked the confidence to do so.I was aware of this. Now, if there had been no electoral bond, the system would have been able to determine how the money came and departed… This is a success story for electoral bonds. There were electoral bonds, so you can track who companies gave, how much they gave, and where they gave. Whether the method was excellent or terrible is debatable.I never claimed that there were no faults in decision-making. We learn through discussion and improvement.
But today, we have entirely pushed the country into black money, and I believe everyone will regret it. “When they think honestly, everyone will regret it,” he said.
Ideological election : Rahul Gandhi
Rahul Gandhi stated during the press conference that the Lok Sabha elections are ideological contests. He asserted that the Constitution was being destroyed by the RSS and the BJP.
“On the one side, the RSS and BJP seek to destroy the Constitution and the democratic system, while the INDIA coalition and Congress Party seek to defend and protect the Constitution and democracy. There are two or three major issues in the elections. Unemployment is the worst, and inflation is the second highest, but the BJP is focusing on distractions…”Neither the Prime Minister nor the BJP talk about these issues,” he claimed.