Govt. is using SBI to hide dubious deals: Kharge
Congress chief says bank is trying to delay disclosure of poll bond donors till LS polls; party asks if bank and ruling party are defying SC order; CPI calls it attempt to save BJP from embarrassment
Aday after the State Bank of India (SBI) sought time from the Supreme Court until June 30 to submit details of the electoral bond scheme, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday accused the Narendra Modiled government of using the SBI as a “shield to hide its dubious dealings”. The party also asked whether the SBI and the ruling party were together defying the order of the Supreme Court.
In a post on X, Mr. Kharge claimed that experts were of the view that nearly 45,000 automated data entries of donors could be matched within 24 hours. “Why does the SBI then need 4 more months, to collate this information?” he said.
“Modi govt. is using the largest bank of our country as a shield to hide its dubious dealings through Electoral Bonds,” he said.
The Congress chief added: ”No less than the Supreme Court of India had struck down Modi govt’s ‘Black Money Conversion’ scheme of Electoral Bonds, holding it ‘Unconstitutional’, ‘Violative of RTI’ and ‘Illegal’ and asking SBI to furnish donor details by March 6.”
‘BJP is the beneficiary’
Mr. Kharge alleged that the extension was being sought to ensure that the names of the donors were not exposed before the Lok Sabha elections. “The BJP is the main beneficiary of this fraudulent scheme. Isn’t the Modi govt. conveniently hiding the BJP’s shady dealings where contracts of highways, ports, airports, power plants were handed over to Modiji’s cronies in lieu of these opaque electoral bonds?” he asked.
“… The Electoral Bonds scheme was opaque, undemocratic and destroyed level playing field. But the Modi govt, PMO and FM bulldozed every institution — RBI, Election Commission, Parliament and Opposition to fill BJP’s coffers. Now a desperate govt. is trying to use SBI to bulldoze the Supreme Court’s judgement!” he said.
‘Black money sources’
Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters, Supriya Shrinate, who heads the social media department, questioned why a bank that operated 48 crore accounts, 66,000 ATMs, and 23,000 branches, needed five months to provide information about electoral bonds.
“This should have been available at the click of a button,” she said. “The question arises whether the country’s largest government bank has now become a means of hiding the financial irregularities of the BJP and the means to conceal source of black money,” she added.
“The question arises whether a political party and a government bank are together defying the decision of the Supreme Court of the country,” Ms. Shrinate asked.
CPI general secretary D. Raja said the SBI was trying to save “the BJP from an embarrassment”. “The claim that it will require more than four months to furnish the details of merely 22,217 EBs makes a joke out Modi’s claims of Digital India. BJP’s extortions and crony capitalist nexus must be exposed,” he said.