Modi Govt, SBI conspiring to cover up financial scams : Cong
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, March 07 2024: The Congress party has accused the BJP Government of conspiring with State Bank of India (SBI) to cover up its financial irregularities, financial scams and sources of black money.

Speaking to media persons at Congress Bhavan here today, MPCC senior spokesman and AICC member Ningombam Bupenda Meitei said that a five-Judge bench of the Supreme Court passed a judgement on February 15 categorically stating that the Electoral Bonds Scheme introduced by the Union BJP Government in 2017-18 is unconstitutional.

The same judgement directed the SBI to submit a detailed report on the number of electoral bonds purchased by political parties since April 12, 2019 and how much money has been received by political parties from electoral bonds by March 6 .

Modi Govt, SBI conspiring to cover up financial scams : Cong

However, SBI filed an application on March 4 to extend the deadline for submitting the report till June 30 .

This SBI application is a tactic to wait for the end of Lok Sabha elections and election of a new Prime Minister, Bupenda said.

Saying that 44,434 sets of information must be collected, the SBI sought some months to file the detailed report on electoral bonds.

Taking strong exception to the failure of SBI to comply with the Supreme Court's judgement, the Association for Democratic Reforms filed a contempt petition against SBI.

SBI's application and the contempt petition would be heard together at the apex Court on March 11, Bupenda said.

He said that political parties have received around Rs 12,000 crore from electoral bonds since the Modi Government was installed in 2014.BJP received 55 per cent (Rs 6566 crore) of this total amount.

It is BJP which has received the maximum benefits from the electoral bond scheme, the MPCC senior spokesman said.

Fearing that its relationship with the big corporate houses would be exposed if the people come to know the details of the electoral bond scheme, the Modi Government exerted pressure on the SBI to seek time from the Supreme Court for filing the detailed report, he said.

SBI is the largest bank of India and it is fully computerised.

If the SBI intends to comply with the apex Court's judgement without allowing any political influence, it can be done within minutes or one day at the most, he asserted.

It is rather unfortunate that the SBI has been seeking time till June 30, he remarked.

It is the only SBI which can give details of how money from electoral bonds reaches political parties and which political parties utilised how much of this money, Bupenda said.

He went on to question if the 55 per cent of the electoral bond money received by BJP are utilised in buying MPs, MLAs in different States to topple the incumbent Governments and opening new party offices.

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been repeatedly claiming that India has been digitised and the country has advanced significantly in the IT sector, the SBI ought not take so much time, Bupenda said.

At one point of time, corporate houses were not allowed to donate money to political parties but today donations are being made in the names of even defunct companies.

Taking recourse to such wrongful tactics, BJP has been scheming to hold on to power.

It is an act of corruption by the BJP, he asserted.

He then appealed to both BJP and SBI to work in line with the Supreme Court's judgement.

MPCC General Secretary (Administration) S Jiten, MPCC General Secretary (Organisation) Amir Hussain and MPCC General Secretary (Election) H Meghachandra were also present at the press meet.