From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bengaluru, Mar 30: “If BJP thinks it can vanquish Congress party through tax terrorism, it is mistaken,’’ asserted Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday.
The Chief Minister accused the Narendra Modi regime and BJP of misusing autonomous institutions like IT, ED, CBI in its bid to defeat the Congress party out of its fear of losing in the Lok Sabha election.
Siddaramaiah, has in a statement to the media, attacked the Modi regime led BJP of resorting to tax terrorism by asking the Congress to pay Rs 1,823 crore on the plea that the party has failed to pay income tax.
The IT Department’s latest notice to the Congress party to pay a huge sum of money as penalty and arrears smacks of tax terrorism.
However, the IT Department is silent on the failure of BJP of amassing Rs 4.5 lakh from 92 ‘’anonymous” donors and another Rs 42 crore as contribution from 1,297 “fictitious” donors without address since 2017-18.
“If the IT Department applies the same yardstick as it did for Congress, it should have collected Rs 4,263 crore from BJP for tax violations during the last seven years,’’ he claimed.
Siddaramaiah lashed out Modi regime for unleashing IT Department against TMC, CPI and other parties while it is silent on the tax violations by BJP. “People are smart enough to see through the Modi regime’s attempts to suppress the non-NDA parties in a bid to weaken them during the elections. They will be taught a lesson by the people, he warned.
The Chief Minister said the IT Department’s claims that it has based its notices from the so called diaries recovered from some Congress leaders are laughable as it has done nothing on the diaries recovered from former BJP chief minister B S Yediyurappa or the Birla diaries which have specifically named Narendra Modi as a beneficiary.
“The entire country and the world knows how the BJP and Modi regime amassed thousands of crores of rupees by misusing IT, ED and CBI. The present tax terrorism against Congress and all other INDIA block parties opposed to BJP is part of the attempts to divert public attention from its own tax violations and failures,’’ he said.
Siddaramaiah demanded that the BJP government should disclose the commission it had collected for waiving bank loans to the tune of Rs 10.09 lakh crore from Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and other wilful defaulters during the last five years.
“Congress party’s real strength is people’s support and not money power. While BJP has money power, Congress has people’s strength and support,’’ he said alleging that “tax defaulters, bank fraudsters, mining and black marketeers, thieves and others involved in illegal activities are the real supporter of BJP.
He termed BJP as the “washing machine” which collects money from all fraudsters and scamsters and issues good character cerificates to such persons. Those wishing to escape from illegal activities and protect themselves from Central investigating agencies can join BJP to get clean chit and carry on with their illicit and illegal activities. No investigating agency touches the BJP people involved in corruption, he said.
Siddaramaiah said the very fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has been bragging of winning 400 seats out of the 543 in the Lok Sabha, is resorting to all the tax terrorism cases against the non –NDA party leaders is indicative of the nervousness and fears of defeat. The writing on the wall about BJP’s defeat is very clear, he added.