Desperate Modi govt using SBI as shield to hide dubious dealings: Congress
New Delhi: The Congress today attacked the Modi-led Indian government after the State Bank of India (SBI) moved the country’s Supreme Court seeking more time to declare electoral bonds details, saying the govt was using India’s largest bank to hide its dubious dealings and bulldoze the top court’s decision on electoral bonds.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the Congress attack came day after the SBI sought time until June 30 to disclose details of each electoral bond encashed by political parties. Earlier, in its verdict last month, the top court had struck down the electoral bonds scheme as unconstitutional, saying that it could lead to quid pro quo arrangements between donors and political parties. It had directed the SBI to furnish the details to the Election Commission by March 6.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said PM Modi was trying to hide the donation business. In a post on X, Rahul Gandhi said, “When the Supreme Court has stated that it is the right of the people of the country to know the truth about electoral bonds, then why does the SBI not want this information to be made public before the elections?”
According to Gandhi, this was the last attempt to hide Modi’s true face ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the party position on the electoral bonds scheme is that it is “opaque, undemocratic and destroyed the level playing field” and “Modi government is using the largest bank of our country as a shield to hide its dubious dealings through Electoral Bonds.”
Mallikarjun Kharge said the current Lok Sabha tenure ends on June 16 and the BJP wants to furnish the details by June 30. “Isn’t the government conveniently hiding the BJP’s shady dealings where contracts of highways, ports, airports, power plants etc. were handed over to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cronies in lieu of these opaque electoral bonds,” Kharge said.
“Now a desperate Modi Govt, clutching on straws, is trying to use SBI to bulldoze the Supreme Court’s judgement!” he said.
