Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman should resign on moral grounds, Congress communication head Jairam Ramesh said on Monday, days after a case was registered against her in Bengaluru, following a court direction for allegedly extorting money through now scrapped electoral bonds.
An FIR has been registered against Sitharaman, ED officials, office-bearers of the BJP at the state and national level, based on the order of a special court. BJP Karnataka chief B Y Vijayendra and party leader Nalin Kumar Kateel have also been named in the FIR.
Jairam Ramesh alleged that the Centre misused ED and Income Tax and forced people to buy electoral bonds. “The ED and IT were deployed against people. They purchased electoral bonds, and then the ED and Income Tax probe was closed,” the Congress leader said.
“The BJP collected over Rs 6,000 crores in donations in five years. BJP says that other parties also received money. It’s true that all parties received donations through electoral bonds, but not all parties had the ED, Income Tax, and CBI in their hands.”
On Sunday, Karnataka Minister Priyank Kharge demanded the resignation of Sitharaman. He alleged that companies that incurred huge losses have made huge donations to the BJP through the electoral bond scheme and the court found valid grounds to direct the police to register an FIR against Sitharaman and others.
According to Kharge, 33 companies running at a loss of Rs one lakh crore have donated Rs 576.2 crore to the BJP. Six companies that have shown a positive net profit have donated Rs 646 crore to the saffron party, which is more than their aggregate net profit. Three companies, which had positive net profit but reported negative direct taxes, have donated Rs 193.8 crore to the BJP, he claimed.
The special court’s order for FIR came on a complaint lodged by Adarsh R Iyer, Co-President of ‘Janaadhikaara Sangharsha Parishath’ (JSP). Iyer alleged that the accused “committed extortion under the guise and garb of electoral bonds and benefitted to the tune of 8,000 and more crore of rupees”.
The complainant claimed that Sitharaman through the clandestine aid and support of ED officials facilitated extortion of thousands of crores of rupees for the benefit of others both at the state and national levels. “The entire extortion racket under the garb of electoral bonds has been orchestrated hand in glove with officials of BJP at various levels.”
