Systematic effort to cripple Congress: Sonia Gandhi

The Congress leadership on Thursday accused the ruling establishment of "freezing the party accounts" ahead of the Lok Sabha elections and blamed PM Modi for it. While Sonia Gandhi made a rare presence at the AICC press conference, along with party president Mallikarjun Kharge and party leader Rahul Gandhi, to allege a plot to dry up the party funds and cripple the Congress poll campaign, Rahul Gandhi said the action against the opposition party's bank accounts showed that there "is no democracy" in the country and that "India being the largest democracy is a lie".

The Congress leaders' charge came in the context of income-tax notices to the party and recovery of ₹115 crore as penalty so far amid the party losing appeals in the Income-Tax Tribunal and its appeal in the Delhi High Court getting rejected. Kharge and other leaders said they could approach the Supreme Court in this regard even as the leaders lamented that the institutional bodies were not stepping in against the I-T recovery.

Sonia Gandhi said: "The issue we are taking up today is extremely serious. This issue affects not just the Indian National Congress, but our 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 very best to maintain the effectiveness of our election campaign. On the one hand, there is the electoral bond issue, which has been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The electoral bonds have benefited, as everyone knows, the BJP hugely, massively. On the other hand, the finances of the principal opposition party are under a determined assault. This, we all believe, is unprecedented and undemocratic".


Rahul Gandhi said the Congress' financial identity was "erased" a month ago. "This has been done literally two months before the election...This is a criminal action on the Congress party and this a criminal action done by the prime minister and the home minister, it is very clear. This has been orchestrated to cripple us in the elections. And no court is saying anything. The Election Commission isn't saying anything. No institution is saying anything," he claimed.

"There is no democracy in India today. The idea that India is the world's largest democracy is a lie. A complete lie. 20% of India votes for us and yet we are not able to pay ₹2 for anything".