The Congress on Tuesday said it will expose in Parliament how the Finance Ministry “lied” about the Election Commission’s objection to electoral bonds in the Rajya Sabha.
Addressing a press conference at the Congress headquarters with party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate, Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi said when an MP had asked if the Election Commission (EC) had objected to the electoral bonds, the former Minister of State for Finance had lied about it.
The Congress released the EC letter of May 2017 to the Law and Justice Ministry in which the poll panel expressed its strong opposition.
“Despite knowing this, the then MoS for Finance told a ‘horrendous lie’ in the Upper House that the government received no complaint from the EC,” Mr. Gogoi said, adding that the issue was a breach of parliamentary privilege.
“The Electoral Bonds scheme by the BJP government is nothing but a mechanism to legitimise bribery and institutionalise a quid pro quo system, where corporate donors give large amounts of donation to the BJP and get favours from the government in return,” Ms. Shrinate said.
“The schemes is a threat to democracy as it takes away the concept of a level playing field for poltical parties,”Ms Srinate said.
