The Opposition on Friday accused the BJP of receiving crores in donation from a company being probed by the ED for allegedly buying properties from Iqbal Mirchi, an accused in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts, and asked whether or not it was a case of "treason".
Parliament witnesses uproar over electoral bonds issue with Congress attacking the Government and asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi to come clean on the allegations surrounding the electoral bonds scheme and accused the Government of legalising corruption.
Opposition parties led by the Congress, which protested in Parliament premises and described the issue as a "threat to democracy", sought to raise the matter in the Rajya Sabha but were not allowed to do so by the Chair. The CPI(M) along with the CPI also hit out at the government over the issue of electoral bonds and said it was "legalised political corruption".
Several senior Congress leaders, including leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Anand Sharma, Shashi Tharoor and Manish Tewari, protested against the Government inside Parliament House premises.
The MPs held placards asking the prime minister to break his silence on the issue, raised slogans against the government and called for ending the electoral bonds scheme. The issue of electoral bonds has snowballed into a political flashpoint following a report by a news portal that the Reserve Bank of India and the Election Commission had reservations against them but were overruled by the Modi government.
Citing the same report, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said it has made four disclosures in the case of donations through electoral bonds. CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury also attacked the government on the matter.
Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala cited a media report claiming the BJP took a large donation from a firm being probed by the Enforcement Directorate for carrying out transactions with and buying properties from the late Iqbal Mirchi, an accused in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts and a close aide of global terrorist Dawood Ibrahim. There was no response from the BJP on the allegations.