'Freezing of democracy': Congress' top three demands access to party's bank accounts

'Systematic effort is underway by prime minister to cripple the Congress financially,' alleged Sonia Gandhi.

New Delhi: Congress top-three Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi on Thursday upped the ante on freezing of the party's accounts over Income Tax claims, calling the action “freezing of democracy” in the country where the Prime Minister is financially “crippling” the main opposition party just before Lok Sabha elections.

The latest attack on the ruling BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi came as the Income Tax Department froze Congress' 11 accounts in the past over one month and served a fresh notice for 1993-94 IT filing when Sitaram Kesari was treasurer, asking them to “calculate penal charges after 31 years of the assessment”.

In an unprecedented press conference where Sonia was present, Kharge demanded the party's accounts should be defrozen to ensure level playing field in the Lok Sabha elections while Rahul said the “idea that India is the world’s largest democracy is a complete lie”.

Sonia said the freezing of party accounts was “very, very serious”, which affects not just the Congress but “democracy itself most fundamentally”. 

“A systematic effort is underway by the Prime Minister to cripple the Congress financially. Funds collected from the public are being frozen, and money from our accounts is being taken away forcibly. However, even under these most challenging circumstances, we are doing our best to maintain the effectiveness of our election campaign,” she said.

“On the one hand, there is the electoral bond issue, which has been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The electoral bonds have benefitted the BJP hugely. On the other hand, the finances of the principal opposition party, the Congress, are under a determined assault. This is truly unprecedented,” she said in a rare appearance at a press meet in the past few years.

Emphasising that the Congress cannot do its campaign as its ability to fight the elections has been “weakened”, Rahul said the Congress cannot even support its candidates or workers or even book a train ticket for its leaders to travel across the country.  He posted on ‘X’ later, “the hate-filled ‘Asura Shakti’ has frozen our bank accounts to murder Indian democracy.”

“This is not freezing Congress' bank accounts, it is freezing of Indian democracy...It is criminal action against Congress, it is criminal action by the Prime Minister and the Home Minister,” he said while lamenting that Constitutional authorities are not taking any stand.

There are institutions that are supposed to protect democratic frameworks but nothing is happening, he said as Kharge echoed him while appealing to constitutional bodies that they should allow Congress to access bank accounts if they want free and fair polls.

Alleging that the BJP has “looted the donations” given to the Congress by freezing the accounts and “forcibly withdrawing” Rs 115.32 crore from them, Congress Treasurer Ajay Maken claimed that no political party, including the BJP, pays Income Tax but the Congress’ 11 accounts were frozen. 

“For a notice for FY 2017-18, lien on Rs 210 crore was marked in our 11 accounts in four Banks. The reason given is that Rs 14.49 lakh was received in cash (as donations made by MPs to the party), out of total receipt of Rs 199 crore. This cash component is just 0.07 per cent of the total donations. And the punishment was 106 per cent,” he said.

“The lien was marked in such a way, that it not only sealed Rs 210 cr, but also prevented Congress from using its deposited amounts of Rs 285 crores. This virtually crippled the finances of the principal opposition party,” he added.

He alleged that on one hand, the agenda is to keep Congress starving for funds and on the other hand, BJP has indulged in “world's biggest extortion racket”  through the electoral bonds.