Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday criticised the Modi Government’s move to exempt political parties from income tax while depositing demonetised currency notes. Kejriwal demanded setting up of a commission to probe source of funding of political parties.
He accused the PM of helping political parties — the “biggest hoarders of black money” — to convert it into “white” at a time when common people have been forced to queue up outside banks and ATMs to withdraw their hard-earned money. “Ye desh ke sath dhokha hai (it is a big fraud played on the country),” Kejriwal said.
The CM said the recent move will help the political parties in changing black money to white. Kejriwal said, “The entire nation is in doubt that the BJP managed its own thousands of crores of black money before demonetisation was announced.” Kejriwal demanded that the BJP must make public all the purchases of land and other assets by its leaders just before demonetisation and after demonetisation
Stating it was “surprising” that the tax exemption decision came after Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi led a party delegation to meet Modi, Kejriwal demanded that the former make public details of Modi’s corruption as he claimed to have supporting documents.
He termed the meet as “a deal to hide unaccounted money”. He said the announcement was an outcome of the parleys between the two.
“Common people are being investigated if they deposit `2.5 lakh individually. But if political parties are not going to be investigated even if they deposit `2,500 crore following the decision, it is wrong. We demand setting up of an independent commission to probe into bank account details of political parties over the past five years, to investigate their sources of funding,” Kejriwal said at a Press conference.
He sought removal of the “less than `20,000 donation cap” for tax exemption, saying “each paisa the parties receive should be declared. The income tax returns filed by AAP right from its formation until now are being enquired into. We are presenting each of the receipts and vouchers to the income tax department. We are not scared, what other parties, BJP, are scared ofIJ Why they too should not be probedIJ” he asked.
The CM said the decision to demonetise the higher currency notes was “unconstitutional” as it bared people from withdrawing their own money. “We were saying it from the outset that Prime Minister’s intent is doubtful (behind demonetisation),” said Kejriwal, adding, “We said it that the scheme is bad, intent is bad and implementation is also bad.”