The Congress on Monday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his remarks on electoral bonds and said this a “bold-faced lie”.

Reacting to Prime Minister’s remarks on electoral bonds in his interview with a news agency, Congress General Secretary in-charge of Communications Jairam Ramesh said, “Every day the Prime Minister scales new heights of hypocrisy and plumbs new depths of dishonesty. Two weeks ago, while speaking to Thanti TV, he claimed that ‘where funds have come from, how they are being used’ is only known due to the BJP’s electoral bond scheme. Today, in his latest interview to ANI, he claimed that ‘When electoral bonds were in use, the public had access to the money trail – which company donated, to whom they donated, and how they donated.’ This is a bold-faced lie.”

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Claiming that the electoral bond scheme was designed to be fully anonymous, Ramesh said, “In other words, Modi wanted to hide the details of where funds have come from (to political parties), and how they are being used.”

“For six years, between 2018 and 2024, not a single detail was revealed to the public about who donated funds and to which political party. This continued until February 15, when the Supreme Court (SC) rejected electoral bonds as ‘unconstitutional’. Up until the last day in court, the Modi government defended the anonymity of the scheme,” he said.

Ramesh, who is also the Congress MP in Rajya Sabha further said, “It was the SC that demanded the SBI publish ‘all details’ of who donated to which party. First, the SBI – controlled by the Finance Ministry – lied to the court, saying that it did not collect this information. Then, it requested three months’ time to collate the data, conveniently seeking an extension until after the election. It was only the SC’s strong intervention that forced the SBI to publish the data within days.”

He alleged that the anonymity of electoral bonds allowed the Prime Minister to cover up four patterns of “corruption” he has engaged in, with the total sums amounting to Rs. 4 lakh crore.

“By creating this anonymous electoral bonds scheme, the PM reduced the Government of India to a supermarket where he can facilitate business in return for donations to the BJP,” the parliamentarian said.

He also posed a volley of questions to the Prime Minister over the matter.

“Did your government not coerce companies into donating to your party through electoral bonds after deploying agencies like the ED, CBI, and IT after them? Were not government policies changed to favour specific companies in certain sectors after they purchased electoral bonds?,” Ramesh questioned.