Cong hails SC for rejecting SBI’s plea

New Delhi, March 11: The Congress on Monday hailed the Supreme Court for dismissing the SBI’s plea seeking an extension of time to furnish electoral bond details but said it was “halfway to truth” and the top court should also give directions so that the nation gets to know who contributed funds to the BJP to bag contracts.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said those who came to power on the promise of bringing black money back from Swiss banks in 100 days did whatever they could to hide the data of their own bank from the Supreme Court.

Earlier in the day, the SC rejected the State Bank of India’s plea seeking an extension of time and ordered it to disclose the details of electoral bonds to the EC by close of business hours on March 12. A five-judge Constitu-tion bench headed by CJI D.Y Chandra-chud also directed the EC to publish the details on March 15.

The bench, however, said it had not directed the bank to match the details of donors and donee with other information. The SBI has to just open the sealed cover, collate the details and give the information to the EC, it said.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge alleged that after the SBI asked for four-and-a-half months to publish the electoral bond details, it became clear that the Modi government was making every possible effort to cover up its dark deeds.

“With the Supreme Court’s decision, the country will soon come to know who donated to the BJP through electoral bonds. This is the first step in exposing the corruption, scams and transactions of the Modi government,” Kharge said in a post in Hindi on ‘X’. “Even now, the country will not find out for which contracts the select capitalist donors of the BJP were giving donations to the Modi government and the SC should give appropriate directions for that,” he said.

Mr Kharge also cited media reports to allege that the BJP used to “extort donations” by getting the EC, CBI and the Income Tax department to conduct raids.