With the Aam Aadmi Party being served a demand notice of ₹30.7 crore by the Income Tax Department, both the BJP and the Congress on Monday attacked the party over its donations.
With AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal accusing the Centre of political vendetta, Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari said that instead of playing a blame-game, the AAP should address the authorities’ notice. Mr. Tiwari said that though Mr. Kejriwal had started the AAP with the promise of transparency, the party’s finances had been under the scanner since its inception.
‘String of allegations’
Since the 2015 Delhi Assembly elections, Mr. Tiwari said there had been a string of allegations, including hawala, removing the names of donors from the AAP site and scams in the Public Works Department and the Health Department of the state government.
The Congress, too, accused the AAP of lack of transparency in its finances, with Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken saying that the party had given different accounts of its donations to the I-T department, the Election Commission of India and to the public through its website, which has since been removed.
“We hope that the Centre conducts a thorough investigation of the matter and not just does lip service as it has been doing in other cases relating to AAP,” said Mr. Maken. He added that the party’s senior leader and Delhi Minister Satyendar Jain was also facing a probe on allegations of money laundering through shell companies.
“Why is the AAP backing out from practising transparent politics, which it had promised when it was founded five years ago,” asked Mr. Maken.
