The Congress alleged that as many as 38 corporate groups had received 179 major contracts, worth Rs 3.8 lakh crore, from the Centre and BJP-led state governments, after making donations worth Rs 2,004 crore through electoral bonds.
Congress communications chief Jairam Ramesh described this as quid pro quo, extortion and bribery of three kinds – “pre-paid”, “post-paid” and “post-raid”. He said a special investigation team (SIT) should be formed immediately for a Supreme Court-monitored probe into all the instances of misuse of power, extortion and quid pro quo.
Trying to alter the electoral discourse, currently revolving round the BJP’s “400-plus” and “Modi’s guarantee” slogans, Ramesh said such a court-monitored SIT would indeed be constituted after a non-BJP government was formed at the Centre.
He said there would be separate SITs for the PM Cares Fund that received money from government departments and employees as well as private companies, including Chinese firms, but has been kept out of the purview of the CAG and the Right to Information Act.
Ramesh said a joint parliamentary committee will be formed to probe “Modani” — the Congress’s shorthand for an alleged Modi-Adani nexus. While such comments are aimed at contesting the perception about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “invincibility”, the Congress also intends to put Modi in the dock with corruption charges.
“Modi himself designed the electoral bond scheme. The opaque scheme ensured that pre-paid bribes, post-paid bribes and post-raid bribes could now be routed through the banking channel as electoral bonds,” Ramesh said.
“Essentially, this is the Prime Minister who gave a guarantee of bringing back black money, (but) instead legalised corruption and then desperately tried to hide it.” He added: “A Prime Minister who is not ready to give a legal guarantee for MSPs (minimum support prices) to farmers secretly gave a legal guarantee for bribery and extortion.”
