The Congress party on Friday alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) electoral funding collection, which is three times higher than all other political parties, is a result of chronic capitalism and an opaque electoral bond scheme.

Speaking to the reporters during a press briefing at the party headquarters in New Delhi, Congress leader Pawan Khera questioned the BJP on the lack of transparency in political donations, while alleging that the electoral bond scheme was designed to favour the ruling party and demanded a transparent system of electoral funding.

Citing a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), Khera said more than 52% of the BJP’s political donations which came from electoral bonds was Rs.5,271.97 crore between 2016-17 and 2021-22 as against Rs.1,783.93 crore received by all other national parties combined.

“The BJP’s money is three times higher than any other party. Earlier, a company could not donate more than 7.5% of net profit for three years. But the BJP government took off the limit. Due to this, now the companies/organisations do not have to reveal how much they donated and to whom,” Khera claimed.

“This is a ‘fair and lovely scheme’ as Rahul Gandhi says where money goes into the account of one party and becomes white,” the Congress spokesperson said.

“This effectively implies that the (PM) Modi government’s controversial, corrupt and contrived electoral bonds scheme is a money whitening scheme, which converts black money to white,” he said at the press conference. “Cash, crony capitalism and corruption are the new ‘chal, charitr and chehra’ of the BJP,” Khera said.

Khera said while demanding total transparency in the funds received by the BJP and other political parties, said that the information should be made public. “Why do you have to hide from your own people? Why should this not be under the Right to Information?” he said.

Questioning the role of central agencies, Khera pointed out that the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or the Income Tax department, only investigates the members of opposition parties and does not act when it comes to the BJP.

“ED, CBI, Income tax – neither of these agencies will raid, nor they will come at the doorsteps of the BJP. But ‘misbehaviour’ with the opposition parties by these agencies is in front. BJP has legitimised chronic capitalism through the electoral bond scheme,” Khera told reporters.

He added that Congress always wanted a transparent system of electoral funding. “Congress party stands absolutely opposed to this opaque system of electoral funding. We will keep on exposing the corporate money greed of the Modi government and the BJP,” Khera added.

He continued, the Congress in its 2019 Lok Sabha manifesto and the 85th Plenary Session in Raipur earlier this year promised to scrap the opaque electoral bond scheme that is designed to favour the ruling party.

In 2017, the BJP through an amendment to the Finance Act exempted political parties from disclosing details of those contributing to the electoral bonds in their contribution reports filed mandatorily with the Election Commission every year. It has been criticised for its lack of transparency and many petitions questioning its constitutionality are pending before the Supreme Court.