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Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday hit out at the State Bank of India for seeking more time from the Supreme Court to furnish information on the electoral bonds, terming it a “last attempt” before the Lok Sabha polls to hide Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “real face”.
A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud had held the anonymous donation instruments unconstitutional and directed the SBI to disclose details of each electoral bond encashed by political parties to the Election Commission by March 6.
The SBI on Monday moved the Supreme Court seeking an extension of time till June 30, submitting that the existing deadline would not be sufficient for the entire exercise to be completed. The state-run bank submitted that retrieval of information from “each silo” and the procedure of matching the information of one silo to that of the other would be a time-consuming exercise.
“Narendra Modi has tried his best to hide the ‘donation business’,” Gandhi said in a post on X in Hindi.
“When the Supreme Court has said that it is the right of the countrymen to know the truth about electoral bonds, then why does SBI want this information not to be made public before the elections?” he wrote.
Asking for time till June 30 to provide information that can be retrieved in one click shows that the whole matter is fishy, he claimed.
“Every independent organization of the country is becoming part of the ‘Modani family’ in trying to cover up their corruption,” Gandhi alleged, adding, “This is the ‘last ditch attempt’ to hide Modi’s ‘real face’ before the elections.”
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh also slammed the government over the issue.
“Aap chronology samjhiye: first elections, then disclosure of electoral bonds. What makes the ruling party so nervous about revealing the source of its bottomless campaign finance coffers?” he asked in a post on X.
“Remember that the analysis of direct campaign donations and electoral trust donations revealed that 30 plus firms that had been raided by the ED/IT/CBI donated ₹335 crore to the BJP after the raids. The BJP got the majority (60 plus %) of its campaign funds from electoral bonds. What ill-deeds of the Modi Sarkar will the disclosure of the electoral bonds funds reveal?” Ramesh posed.
CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said SBI’s move raises “suspicious apprehensions”.He said in a post on X, “This would be a travesty of justice. Is SBI seeking extension till after the general elections to protect Modi and the BJP from exposure of the ‘quid pro quo’ that the Hon’ble Supreme Court apprehended?”
“In this digital age, all this information is a mouse-click away. Seeking extension raises suspicious apprehensions,” he said.
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