A day after the Narendra Modi government set up an inter-ministerial committee to probe three NGOs related to the Gandhi family , former Union Minister P. Chidambaram, who is one of the trustees in the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, on Thursday said they would fight the ‘witch-hunt’ fearlessly.
On Wednesday, the Home Ministry announced that the committee would probe three trusts — Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF), Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust and Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust — for alleged violations of PMLA, Income Tax and FCRA.
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“Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi lived a life without fear. They faced death in the eye without fear. Both taught us that it is important to live and work fearlessly. And that is how we will face the witch hunt by the Modi government,” Mr. Chidambaram said on Twitter.
While the Congress had called the move ‘vicious and vengeful,’ former party chief Rahul Gandhi targeted Mr. Modi on Twitter.
“Mr Modi believes the world is like him. He thinks every one has a price or can be intimidated. He will never understand that those who fight for the truth have no price and cannot be intimidated,” Mr. Gandhi tweeted on Wednesday.
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The Congress also dared the government to probe the donations received by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and a few other institutions such as Vivekananda Foundation and India Foundation that are known to be close to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
“Will the Modi Government hold a similar enquiry, as the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust and the Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust, into the donations and the amounts received by the ‘Vivekananda Foundation’ and the ‘India Foundation’ (and other such foundations) from all sources including foreign sources, individuals, entities, organisations and governments?” asked Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala.
“Will the Modi Government order an enquiry into the nearly 500% increase in income and donations to the BJP from Rs. 570.86 Crores (in 2015-2016) to Rs. 2410 crores (in 2018-2019)? Let BJP and Modi Government not bury their abject failures in defending our borders, fighting Covid-19, tackling a devastating economic recession, or avoiding answers to the aforementioned questions,” he added.
