BJP says Rajiv Gandhi Foundation took funds from China, Congress says ‘stop living in 2005’
Politics

BJP says Rajiv Gandhi Foundation took funds from China, Congress says ‘stop living in 2005’

The BJP alleged donations to the foundation were made in 2005-06 when the UPA-I was in power. Congress hit back, saying the govt is playing ‘diversionary tactics’.  

   
BJP working president J.P. Nadda

File image of J.P. Nadda | Photo: Suraj Singh Bisht | ThePrint

New Delhi: The BJP and Congress Thursday again traded barbs over the India-China border stand-off in Ladakh, with the ruling party accusing the latter of taking funds from China for the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF). 

The Congress, however, responded asking the BJP to “stop living in 2005 and start answering questions in 2020”.

The BJP alleged that donations to the RGF were made in 2005-06 when the Congress-led UPA-I was in power. 

The RGF is a charitable organisation with Congress president Sonia Gandhi as its chairperson, while former prime minister Manmohan Singh, party leaders Rahul Gandhi, P. Chidambaram and Priyanka Gandhi serve as its board members. 

BJP’s IT cell head Amit Malviya, in a series of tweets Thursday, alleged the RGF had taken funding not only from the Chinese embassy in Delhi, but also from the Chinese government. 

 

BJP national president, in a virtual rally Thursday, also accused the Congress of taking “a hefty amount of three thousand hundred US dollars (sic) from China and the Chinese embassy” as donations for the foundation.

The BJP’s attacks come days after Rahul Gandhi said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has “surrendered” to China.


Also read: Sonia Gandhi writes to PM Modi seeking rollback of ‘insensitive’ fuel price hike


Congress ‘pattern’ of not condemning China

Besides Malviya and Nadda, law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad also attacked the Congress. 

During a press conference, he said: “There is a pattern as to why the Congress party does not condemn China.”

“Ten years rule of the Manmohan Singh government is littered with various evidence as to how the Congress party tried to support China and make it earn tonnes of money by permitting the increase of trade deficit 33 times,” he added.

 

He further questioned the party asking why they took a donation from the Chinese embassy.

 

The BJP has been targeting the Congress over the past several days after the opposition party started questioning the ruling dispensation over its handling of the India-China border stand-off.

On Tuesday, Nadda had questioned the Congress on a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) the Congress had signed with the Communist Party of China in 2008. 

“First, Congress signs MoU with the Chinese Communist Party. Then, Congress surrenders land to China. During the Doklam issue, Rahul Gandhi secretly goes to the Chinese embassy. During crucial situations, Rahul Gandhi tries to divide the nation and demoralise armed forces. Effects of MoU?” Nadda wrote in a tweet on 23 June.

A PIL was also filed in the Supreme Court Wednesday, seeking directions to the NIA or CBI to investigate the 2008 agreement.

The plea was filed by advocate Shashank Shekhar Jha and Editor-in-Chief of Goa Chronicle, Savio Rodrigues. The petitioners argued that the Congress had signed an agreement with China, despite having a hostile relationship with the country at the time, and had hidden facts and details of the agreement from the country.

Modi govt’s ‘diversionary tactics’

The Congress, meanwhile, reacted sharply to the BJP’s allegations with chief party spokesperson Randeep Surjewala issuing a statement, saying: “Please stop living in 2005 and start answering questions in 2020.”

He also accused the Modi government of playing “diversionary tactics”.

“The only prime minister of India, who goes to China 5 times, is Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The only prime minister to call Chinese prime minister to India 3 times is the present Prime Minister Modi. The only prime minister, who meets Chinese prime minister and has meetings with him 18 times in total, is Prime Minister Modi. The only party, which received a delegation and held detailed consultations with the Chinese on 17 October 2008, then led by the current defence minister and then BJP president Rajnath Singh, is the BJP,” Surjewala said.

He also questioned the relationship between the RSS and the Chinese Communist Party.

“Is it also not correct that in January, 2009 the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh had consultations with the Chinese Communist Party… Is it also not correct that on 19 January, 2011 the then BJP President Shri Nitin Gadkari took a delegation of BJP to China and held detailed consultations, were they anti-Indian consultation? Is it not correct that in 2014 the BJP sent a 13-member MP-MLAs delegation for political study of the Chinese system and the Chinese political party, were those anti-India activities,” he asked.  


Also read: ‘Surender Modi’ tweet intensifies BJP backlash against Rahul Gandhi, Congress & all critics