Congress Alleges Electoral Bonds as "World's Biggest Extortion Racket" Orchestrated by Modi Government

On Friday, Rahul Gandhi said that the electoral bonds constituted "the biggest extortion racket in the world" and his party called for an inquiry overseen by the Supreme Court as well as criminal charges against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Chief of communications for the Congress, Jairam Ramesh, attempted to connect purported corporate donations to the BJP through electoral bonds to government contract awards or coercion by investigating agencies, citing "hafta" (protection money) and "quid pro quo."

"Modi introduced electoral bonds with the intention of cleaning up India's political fundraising system. "The truth has emerged—it is the largest extortion scheme globally," Rahul declared during a Thane, Maharashtra, press conference.

"The Prime Minister orchestrated the use of it for extortion, sharing of contract profits, and project money theft."

"This is the biggest anti-national activity," he continued. This level of corruption is unthinkable. The State's whole apparatus was set up to facilitate corruption. The BJP was the target of extortion by the CBI, Enforcement Directorate, and income-tax department. Modi was the mastermind behind the plan.

Former finance minister and seasoned member of Congress P. Chidambaram called the now-canceled electoral bonds program, which permitted anonymous contributions to political parties, "legalized bribery."

The general secretary of the Congress responsible for organizing, K.C. Venugopal, commented on X, stating: "The electoral bonds list reveals that it is a scam that contains hundreds of scams within it." Vendetta, extortion, policy changes, and quid pro quo have all been revealed.

To be absolutely clear, this is a carefully planned and executed swindle from the top down. This degree of system manipulation and corporate takeover has to be penalized severely, and the Prime Minister and his ministers might be charged under a number of different criminal laws.

"We demand that the Supreme Court launch a thorough investigation into this scam and that the BJP's bank accounts be immediately frozen until this investigation is finished."

Ramesh said that money-laundering, extortion, blackmail, coercion, and kickbacks were all involved in the election bond scheme.

It was a Chanda do-dhandha lo program, which means "give donations, get business." As of right now, the electoral bonds data reveals the BJP's use of at least four corrupt strategies: 1. Quid Pro Quo 2. Vasooli Hafta 3. Bribes 4. The use of shell corporations for money laundering," he stated.

Chidambaram P.

 "There are several instances of businesses donating electoral bonds and then receiving substantial benefits from the government. More than Rs 800 crore was donated by Megha Engineering & Infra. After donating Rs 140 crore in April 2023, they were given the Rs 14,400 crore Thane-Borivali Twin Tunnel Project just one month later.

"On October 7, 2022, Jindal Steel & Power donated Rs 25 crore. Three days later, on October 10, 2022, they were awarded the Gare Palma IV/6 coal mine."

Ramesh responded, "The strategy is simple — raid a target through the ED/CBI/IT, and then seek hafta," in response to the accusation of "hafta vasooli." Raids have been made on at least 14 of the top 30 donors.

An earlier investigation this year revealed that corporations were coerced into making donations to the BJP through electoral trusts following raids by the ED, CBI, and IT. Many of the same businesses, such as Yashoda Hospital and Hetero Pharma, have made donations through electoral bonds. After an IT government raid on Shirdi Sai Electricals in December 2023, they gave Rs 40 crore in January 2024.

"Future Gaming & Hotels is the largest donor in the data thus far, having donated over Rs 1,200 crore," he continued. This is the timeline: Five days after the ED searches Future on April 2, 2022, the company donates Rs 100 crore. The IT department raids Future in October 2023; in the same month, they make a donation of Rs 65 crore.

"On March 3, 2021, Vedanta acquired the private coal mine in Radhikapur West. Later that month, in April 2021, they made a donation of Rs 25 crore. After being awarded the Rs 4,500 crore Zojila tunnel project in August 2020, Megha Engineering & Infra made a donation of Rs 20 crore in October 2020. In December 2022, Megha received the contract for the BKC bullet train station and made a donation of Rs 56 crore in the same month.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Press Time staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.