Daijiworld Media Network - Thane

Thane, Mar 15: Rahul Gandhi, Congress leader, denounced the electoral bonds scheme as the world's largest extortion racket, attributing it to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a press conference on Friday. He alleged that funds obtained through this scheme were utilized to destabilize parties like the Shiv Sena and NCP, and orchestrate governmental changes.

During his 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra', Gandhi suggested that Congress' central election committee and party president Mallikarjun Kharge would determine whether he should contest the Lok Sabha election from Amethi.

Gandhi criticized the electoral bonds scheme, initially portrayed as a tool to cleanse the political finance system by the Prime Minister, asserting that it actually coerced contributions from India's major corporations for BJP. He called it the "largest extortion racket in the world" and urged for investigations.

Responding to queries about corporations donating electoral bonds to Congress and securing contracts in states governed by the party, Gandhi pointed out that opposition-led state governments lacked authority over national-level contracts like highways and defense, or oversight of central probe agencies like Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate. He alleged a correlation between contracts awarded in Congress-run states and subsequent donations to BJP, citing instances of CBI and ED cases being filed against companies followed by donations to BJP.

Gandhi accused the scheme of facilitating anonymous corporate donations and claimed that certain companies, previously non-contributors to BJP, began donating after facing CBI and ED scrutiny.

He further accused the Prime Minister of orchestrating the scheme, alleging that BJP utilized electoral bonds to fund activities such as destabilizing opposition parties like Shiv Sena and NCP.

Gandhi criticized the BJP government, labeling ED and CBI as BJP and RSS affiliates and promising consequences for these actions once BJP is out of power. He assured that such occurrences would be prevented in the future.