PM Modi’s hands were shaking when he justified electoral bonds, it is ‘world’s biggest scam’: Rahul Gandhi
Rahul Gandhi hit the campaign trail in Karnataka and spoke at a rally for Congress's Mandya candidate, Venkataramane Gowda, aka Star Chandru.
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Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar during a public meeting ahead of the Lok sabha elections held at Mandya. (Express Photo by Jithendra M)Congress leader Rahul Gandhi began his Lok Sabha elections 2024 campaigning in Karnataka on Wednesday by continuing to attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the electoral bonds scheme, labelling it the ‘world’s biggest extortion racket’ and the ‘world’s biggest scam’.
Addressing a rally in Mandya ahead of polls in the region on April 26, Gandhi referred to Modi’s recent interview with the news agency ANI to claim that the prime minister was scared when justifying the electoral bond scheme, which the Supreme Court struck down, deeming it unconstitutional. Electoral bonds allowed individuals and corporations to anonymously fund political parties.
“In the one-and-half-hour interview, he tried to issue a clarification about electoral bonds. When he spoke about electoral bonds his hands were shaking. This is because the electoral bond scheme is the world’s biggest scam,” said Gandhi, who was campaigning for Mandya Congress candidate Venkataramane Gowda aka Star Chandru.
“When the scheme was introduced, the PM claimed it would clean the political system. But, the BJP government concealed details of the donors and the number of donations received through electoral bonds before the Supreme Court struck it down,” Gandhi said.
“When data (of electoral bonds) was made public, it showed that after a company secured a government contract, it gave crores (to the BJP) through electoral bonds the very next day. When a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or Enforcement Department (ED) enquiry was instituted (against a firm), they donated through electoral bonds and the investigation was stopped,” he said, adding that the term in the streets for such a tactic was extortion.
“Haftebaazi. Small thugs do such things, threaten someone and get money…. Government has threatened companies and got money,” said Gandhi, who had come to Karnataka after campaigning in his own constituency, Wayanad, in Kerala, for the last two days. In Wayanad, also, Gandhi had picked on PM Modi’s interview defending the electoral bonds scheme, saying he is an ‘instrument of the rich’, distracting people from real issues like poll bonds.
In the interview, Modi accused the Opposition of spreading lies about the electoral bonds scheme and said the country has been pushed towards “black money” in the elections.
Training his guns at the BJP’s National Democratic Alliance (NDA) ally Janata Dal (Secular), Gandhi recalled that he had called JD(S) the B-team of the BJP. “Now, it is clear that they are not the B-team but partners who help each other,” he said.
In Mandya, Gowda is up against JD(S) state president and former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy.
Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka will be held on April 26 and May 7, during the second and third phases, respectively. The result will be out on June 4 as part of the nationwide counting.
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