Congress alleges quid-pro-quo between BJP and donors, seeks 'white paper' on party finances

The Congress party has demanded an investigation into the allegations of quid-pro-quo between the (BJP) and its donors who have been raided by investigation agencies. The party is also planning to move court seeking an investigation relying on the news reports published jointly by NewsMinute and Newslaundry.

"You may be aware that a scathing investigative report in the online publications - Newslaundry and The News Minute has exposed the alleged quid-pro-quo between BJP and several firms, who in a strange coincidence donated to it, after the (ED), Income Tax Department (IT) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and others, raided/searched those enterprises," KC Venugopal, Congress MP and party's general secretary (Organisation) said in a letter to Union Finance Minister on February 23.

The news report, the letter says, is authenticated by several documents regarding donation and other robust evidence and hence raises serious questions about the institutional independence and autonomy of the Central agencies – IT, ED, CBI. Two of the three agencies come under the jurisdiction of the Finance Ministry.

"The entire nation knows how investigative agencies are being remote controlled by your government. This has been testified by the fact that there has been a 4-fold increase in ED cases against politicians since 2014, and 95% of the cases are against the Opposition leaders," Venugopal said.

The letter mentions instances that it says seem to be a clear-cut case of legal extortion in the form of donations to the ruling party, by exerting pressure on investigative agencies. Certainly, these are not the only cases where such modus operandi of alleged extortion has taken place. This looks like the tip of the iceberg, it