Senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh on Tuesday sought an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “justifying” electoral bonds despite the Supreme Court declaring the scheme as unconstitutional.
In his first detailed take on the electoral bonds scheme after it was scrapped by the apex court, Mr. Modi, in an interview a day earlier, said the scheme should be viewed as a “success story” as it had shown who had made contributions to political parties.
Mr. Singh said, “The electoral bonds scheme is the biggest scam of independent India and Modiji is standing in its favour.” He added that the Prime Minister was “openly supporting the corruption” done by the BJP through electoral bonds.
“The BJP took bribes from companies in the form of election bonds and the next day Mr. Modi gave them contracts worth crores of rupees [to them]. The BJP took donations from the companies on which raids were conducted. This is why the BJP supports electoral bonds despite the Supreme Court declaring the scheme unconstitutional and illegal,” Mr. Singh said.
The AAP leader added that the PM had, in the interview, chosen not to speak on issues affecting the general public, such as black money, inflation, unemployment, and minimum support price (MSP) for various crops.
“Why should the ED and the CBI not interrogate the companies giving electoral bonds and find out why they bribed the BJP and how they got big contracts? [Aurobindo Pharma director] Sarath Reddy was arrested, yet he donated ₹60 crore to the BJP. Sarath Reddy was the main accused in the liquor scam,” Mr. Singh said.
