Congress seeks Sitharaman’s resignation after FIR in Karnataka

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Congress says FIR against Sitharaman filed on directions of special court

By Raisina Correspondent

New Delhi, September 29: The Congress today demanded resignation of the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman after the registration of an FIR against her on the directions of a special court in Karnataka. The FIR was filed over the Electoral Bonds.

The Congress alleged that the Electoral Bonds scheme was an “extortion” method used by the BJP to collect money. Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters here today, senior Congress leader and MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi and general secretary in charge communications Jairam Ramesh pointed out, the FIR was not registered at the behest of the Congress party, but only at the directions of a special court in Karnataka.

“There is a due process of law like the summons, the interrogation and arrest as prima facie an offence has been made out, which led to the registration of the FIR,” Singhvi said.

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The Congress leader claimed that “Sitharaman was the accused number one, besides the ED, the BJP and others as they had conspired together to extort money from companies through the EBS – the Electoral Bond Scheme”.

Singhvi argued that “it was a direct attack on the basic structure of the Constitution as it denied level playing field to other parties for the elections”. He referred to an earlier Law Commission report, which said that financial advantage provides winning advantage to the parties and the candidates.

Singhvi explained: There was a pattern as to how the Electoral Bond scheme was used like when did a particular company buy the EB and for how much; how many times did ED and IT knock on its door before purchasing the EB; how much was it intimidated after that, and how these bonds turned like ‘magic wands’ that those intimidated earlier were let off or the agencies went lenient with them.”

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Jairam Ramesh asserted that the union Finance Minister must resign on “moral, legal and political grounds”. He pointed out, it was only after the Supreme Court of India declared the Electoral Bonds illegal and compelled the State Bank of India to reveal the names of the EB buyers, it was known as who paid how much.

He said the Congress party used its own resources by applying the ‘Python’ software code to find out the methods used. He said the party found four ways of the conspiracy, which included “Chanda do, dhandha lo (pay donation, get business), which was a prepaid method”.

Ramesh also alleged: “Second method was ‘theka lo, chanda do’ (get the contracts and then pay), which was like a “post-paid” method. The third method was like ‘hafta vasooli’ (extortion) which was done by misuse of agencies like the ED. The fourth method, he disclosed, was by use of shell companies”.

Ramesh said “the BJP during the last five and a half years collected ₹6,000 crores through this scheme. He demanded the constitution of an SIT to probe the scam in the name of Electoral Bonds”.

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