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The BJP on Wednesday targeted Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, asserting that she has been attacking demonetisation out of concern about action against her party’s dubious election campaign funding.
The Trinamool Congress has been served an income-tax notice seeking details of a ₹24 crore publicity drive ahead of the 2014 general elections.
The I-T department has reportedly listed four specific cases of discrepancies concerning payments for helicopters hired during the election campaign, a publicity campaign through newspaper advertisements and other poll-related expenses.
The BJP termed this as an instance of “use of black money and dubious funding of elections”, which, the party asserted, was the principal reason for Banerjee’s staunch opposition to anti-black money measures, such as demonetisation.
Banerjee has accused the BJP of mounting a “witch-hunt” in unleashing central investigating agencies against her.
Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters, Power Minister Piyush Goyal accused Banerjee of being part of a “coalition of corruption” against a “symbol of honesty and transparency”, the BJP.
“Over the last three years, the BJP has been consistently curbing the menace of black money, corruption and introducing measures for transparency and honesty in election funding,” said Goyal.
“The culmination of these policy measures was demonetisation. So, we were surprised when some political parties criticised it. What has come out today is very serious. Now we know why notebandi was being opposed by these people, now we know why Didi (Mamata Banerjee) was so pained,” he added
“This decision was pro-poor but, of course, some parties were feeling the pain. Their sources of dubious election funding and black money were drying up, said Goyal.
‘BJP a role model’“If all parties had followed the highest standards of probity and honesty set by the BJP, they would not have been opposed to pro-poor and anti-black money measures like demonetisation. The BJP has initiated electoral reforms, such as reducing the limit of cash transactions,” he said.
“The opposition to these measures stems from the political parties’ unease about their sources of income. It is a coalition of the corrupt against honesty and transparency,” said Goyal.
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