A day after raids by Income Tax Department at the houses of five employees working with the accounts department of the Congress, the party has accused the BJP government of hitting a new low and trying to turn India into a “police state.”
The raids that started on Friday continued on Saturday. Party spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Anand Sharma said that there were two sets of laws in the country as no one questioned the BJP, which, he claimed, was the richest political party in the world.
“India cannot be converted into a state, where people are living in fear and insecurity... You [BJP] cannot create a police or a surveillance state by terror of raids on the opposition party,” he said.
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The Youth Congress workers also held a protest in front of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s residence against the raids on Saturday afternoon.
Mr. Sharma alleged that the government was obsessed with political vendetta and now it had started raiding the houses of salaried employees of the Congress. He said that the Congress, while it was in power never targeted the BJP in a similar fashion. The investigating agencies were being systematically put to intimidate the opposition parties.
Citing reports, Mr. Sharma claimed that the BJP spent about ₹40,000 crore during the Lok Sabha elections and 99% of the total electoral bonds were in its favour but no one questioned the party.
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“Where did this money come? No one asks them questions and now the BJP-led government has stooped to a new low by targeting small-time salaried employees of the Congress... they are just employees, not leaders,” he said.
Mr. Sharma said he was unaware of the case in connection to which these employees were being raided.