After the Supreme Court dismissed the plea seeking transfer of PM CARES fund to NDRF, the Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad hits out at the Congress, especially Rahul Gandhi, saying he had “tried to pull down” the government in its fight against coronavirus since Day 1.

Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “Transparency is writ large in PM CARES Fund both in terms of legal requirement and transparent management of funds received on a voluntary basis. Unnecessary targeting of the PM CARES fund has been done in the high court and in the Supreme Court.”

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“Rahul Gandhi has been doing this based on what his advisors. Rahul Gandhi has continuously been making statements to weaken the country on multiple fronts. Rahul Gandhi has left no stone unturned to weaken the country’s resolve in the fight against Coronavirus,” he added.

He further said, “This is the Modi government. We do things properly. PM CARES is a Trust and all the trustees are public, audits are done and all information is available on its website for everyone to see. It is a transparent fund, unlike the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation which used to have a budgetary provision for a contribution towards the private, family-run fund. It is not like how NDRF had transferred money to the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation.”

“The PM CARES fund is being run in a transparent manner and it has contributed Rs 3,100 crore to the fight against coronavirus. Let me make it clear that the break-up of the Rs 3,100 crore is Rs 2,000 crore towards ventilators, Rs 1,000 crore towards migrants, and Rs 100 crore towards vaccine development,” the minister asserted.

Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court rejected a plea seeking the transfer of money for the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM CARES) fund to the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) saying that it cannot direct the government to do so and that funds collected by the PM Cares Fund are entirely different and that these are funds of charitable trusts.

The petition was filed by the NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation seeking the transfer of the fund from PM CARES – which was launched by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to meet the challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic.

The NGO, in its petition,  has claimed the Centre was “refraining from divulging information” about the money “contributed to the PM CARES Fund till date.

This is the second time in a week that Ravi Shankar Prasad has launched a scathing attack on Rahul Gandhi as on Sunday, he took a dig at the Congress leader over his tweet alleging BJP of controlling the social media platform Facebook and Whatsapp.

Rahul Gandhi had alleged the BJP of spreading fake news and hatred through these platforms and also of using it to influence the electorate.

Reacting on the allegations, Union Minister called Rahul Gandhi as a loser who failed to influence the people even in his own political party.

“You were caught red-handed in alliance with Cambridge Analytica & Facebook to weaponise data before the elections,” he had said.

“Losers who cannot influence people even in their own party keep cribbing that the entire world is controlled by BJP & RSS. You were caught red-handed in alliance with Cambridge Analytica & Facebook to weaponise data before the elections & now have the gall to question us?” Ravi Shankar Prasad had said.