Guwahati: In a big respite for the Congress party, its leader Vivek Tankha on Friday said that their bank accounts were unfrozen by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal after the party filed an appeal.
The clarification came shortly after the Congress said Income Tax authorities had frozen its main bank accounts, impacting all political activity.
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Tankha who appeared before the tribunal against the order, said the Congress was now allowed to operate its bank accounts.
The tribunal will hear the matter next Wednesday before a final decision is taken on the matter.
Tankha said he told the tribunal that the Congress would not be able to participate in the “festival of elections” in case its accounts remain frozen.
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The statement comes after Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge claimed that their accounts were frozen.
“Power drunk Modi government has frozen the accounts of the country’s largest opposition party – the Indian National Congress – just before the Lok Sabha elections,” claimed Kharge.
The Congress president said that this move by the BJP government to ‘freeze’ the bank accounts of the country’s main opposition party “is a deep assault on India’s democracy”.
“The unconstitutional money collected by the BJP would be utilised by them for elections, but the money collected by us through crowdfunding shall be sealed,” said Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.
He added: “That is why, I have said that there won’t be any elections in the future.”
The Congress president appealed to the judiciary to “save the multi-party system in this country and protect India’s democracy”.
“We will take to the streets and fight strongly against this autocracy,” Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said.
This alleged move by the BJP government against the Congress party came just a day after the Supreme Court struck down the electoral bonds scheme, introduced by the Modi government in 2017 while terming it ‘unconstitutional’.
Serving a significant blow to the BJP government, the Supreme Court said that the electoral bonds scheme for political funding violates the right to freedom of speech and expression, along with the right to information.
On Thursday (February 15), the Supreme Court delivered a unanimous judgment annulling the electoral bonds scheme, directing the State Bank of India to disclose details of contributors to the scheme to the Election Commission by March 06.
The election commission has also been instructed to publish this information on its official website by March 13.
Meanwhile, the opposition parties welcomed the verdict of the Supreme Court saying that the scheme was “opaque and undemocratic”.
He said: “We welcome the decision of the Supreme Court, which has struck down this ‘Black Money Conversion’ scheme of the Modi government, calling it ‘unconstitutional’.”