Muraleedharan slams Cong for row on electoral bonds

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs V Muraleedharan on Saturday accused the Congress of creating controversy in Parliament over electoral bonds, which was introduced to bring greater transparency into the system of electoral funding.

Slamming the opposition, the minister alleged that during the UPA rule, the Congress had collected crores of rupees as election funds in the form of black and white money from big industries.

Now a transparent system has been put in place for the electoral funding...after holding discussions with the Election Commission and bringing changes into it on the basis of suggestions of the Commission and the Reserve Bank of India, Muraleedharan said.

The electoral funding system is transparent today. But Congress is trying to create controversy over the issue," the minister said, participating in a debate as chief guest while launching the book 'Amit Shah and the March of BJP' in Kerala.

He said efforts to create smokescreen over the issue would meet the fate of Rafale allegations which were proved wrong in the scrutiny of the Supreme Court.

"They (the Congress) are raising allegations on some issues but they have no connection with reality," the minister said.

A row has erupted over the use of electoral bonds for donations to political parties, with the Congress terming them a "threat to democracy" because of anonymity about donors and donees.

The BJP, on the other hand, has asserted that these bonds have curbed black money and ushered in honest and tax- paid money in political funding.

Speaking about the book authored by Anirban Ganguly and Sivanand Dwivedi, Muraleedharan mentioned the chemistry between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah that contributed to BJPs surge in electoral politics.

Referring to the political attack on Modi and Shah by opposition parties over various issues, including the RCEP, Muraleedharan alleged that the two top BJP leaders had been "facing all sorts of slandering and facing them, they have moved forward."

Muraleedharan, who is also the minister of State for External Affairs, defended the decision to opt-out of the contentious Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), saying it would not have been in the interest of the common man of the country.

He said this was done for protecting the interest of millions of farmers in the country.

The declared policy of the party and government was to serve the interest of the country's common man, the minister added.