With Arvind Kejriwal alleging a witch hunt by the Government, Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde on Tuesday changed tack to say the probe into AAP’s foreign funding was not an initiative by the Centre but was being done on the directive of the Delhi High Court.
On Monday, Shinde said the government had decided to probe AAP’s foreign funding after receiving several complaints in this regard. “We have ordered the inquiry after the Delhi High Court took note of the matter and passed instructions,” he told reporters, a day after making the announcement about the probe. Shinde changing his version seems to be to save his government from criticism for conducting probe into AAP’s affairs in the poll season. More so, since it came just the day after Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit questioned the source of Rs 19 crore that the AAP collected as donations.
“Complaints have come to me. We are probing the matter. ...From where the funds are coming, from which country, what is the source etc. We are trying to find out all these,” Shinde said on Ministry’s monthly media briefing on Monday. Shinde also said the foreign contribution division of the Home Ministry has sent a detailed questionnaire to AAP under Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA). “We are waiting for their reply,” he said.
The Delhi High Court had on October 23 asked the Centre to look “afresh” into the accounts of AAP to find out the sources of the money received by the party since its inception. A bench of justices Pradeep Nandrajog and V K Rao had asked the Centre to inform it by December 10 after going through the accounts of AAP. Accusing the government of a “witch hunt” by ordering the probe, AAP demanded a similar inquiry against the BJP and Congress also.