NEW DELHI:
Congress
and former Union Minister
Kapil Sibal
on Saturday slammed Finance Minister
Nirmala Sitharaman
over her remarks that BJP intends to bring back
electoral bonds
scheme after wide consultations and said the
Supreme Court
had scrapped the scheme terming it unconstitutional.
Attacking the ruling alliance at the Centre, Congress leader
Jairam Ramesh
said If BJP wins and restores electoral bonds, "how much will they loot this time".
Sibal, who is an MP, also asked RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat to spell out his stance on the electoral bonds scheme.
"I respect Niramal
Sitharaman
a lot. But in an interview, she said that we will bring back electoral bonds and it was also said that when electoral bonds were introduced, they were introduced for the sake of transparency," he said.
This is exactly the opposite of what the Supreme Court said. The Supreme Court has said that these are not transparent, they were brought in a non-transparent manner. Now the problem they are facing is that they have money for this election but they know that they will need the money when they lose.... ...I want to ask Mohan Bhagwat why is he silent?" Sibal asked.
Jairam Ramesh said on X that Sitharaman has declared that if the BJP returns to power, they will bring back the Electoral Bonds that the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional and illegal.
"We know that the BJP looted Rs. 4 lakh crore of public money in the #PayPM scam. Now they want to continue the loot. Recall the four methods of #PayPM: 1) Prepaid Bribery - Chanda do, Dhandha Lo, 2) Postpaid Bribery - Theka Do, Rishvat Lo Combinet Cost of Pre-paid and Post-paid Bribes: Rs. 3,8 lakh crores; 3) Post-Raid Bribery - Hafta Vasuli, cost of Post-Raid Bribes: Rs. 1,853 crores; 4) Farzi Companies - Money Laundering, Cost of Farzi Companies: Rs. 419 crores. If they win and restore the Electoral Bonds, how much will they loot this time? he asked.
"This is the most important election of our lifetime. Thankfully, as ground reports make clear, this corrupt brigade is on its way out!" he added.
In an interview with the Hindustan Times, Nirmala Sitharaman said that the BJP intends to bring back electoral bonds in some form after wide consultations with all the stakeholders if it is elected back to power in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The Supreme Court in February this year struck down the electoral bonds scheme and said it was unconstitutional.
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