Mathew Antony, Supongmeren Jamir and others during press conference in Kohima on March 23. (Morung Photo)
Our Correspondent
Kohima | March 23
The All India Congress Committee (AICC) Spokesperson Adv Mathew Antony today called upon the people to vote out Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government for allegedly giving “false promises and looting the government treasury from the hard earned money of the people,” among others.
Antony, who is also National Media Coordinator for North-East is currently in Nagaland.
Addressing a press conference here at Congress Bhavan Kohima in the presence of Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) President S Supongmeren Jamir and other leaders, he accused that the BJP lied to 140 crores people of India with a fraudulent electoral bonds scheme.
“It was promised to Indians that it was an anonymous way of collecting funds but it turned exclusive information with the government to use blackmailing with ED, CBI and other agencies to extort money or to give large contracts and take commissions,” he claimed.
He also charged the BJP of betraying the people of India with largest engineered scam in the electoral bonds.
Antony also claimed that the Congress account have been frozen, adding that “around Rs 165 crore have been forcibly taken away from our account.”
They are doing to suppress the democracy by oppressing the campaign work of the Congress party, he said.
“Why BJP is behaving, like putting to suppress the opposition and to have one- sided election by taking and freezing all our resources”,” he questioned.
“We want the people of Nagaland to think. We want the people of Nagaland to ask this question yourself and then cast your vote. “Do you want a government which oppresses you? Do you want a government which take away your right?.”
If today, he said, they have taken away of the rights of people like a strong opposition party like Congress party and arrested the Chief Ministers like Arvind Kejriwal, Hemant Soren, “What stop them from taking away your wealth on one fine day because you do not have agreement with them, what stop them from freezing your account, freezing your profession, stopping your activities?”
He called upon the electorates of Nagaland to vote for Congress to protect their rights and interest.
He maintained that between 2018 and 2024, the BJP received Rs 8,252 crore out of a total of Rs.16,518 crore in electoral bonds.
The Congress party received only Rs 1,950 crore, and even this has been frozen, he stated.
He said that many parties received funds via electoral bonds, since all donors preferred to give anonymously.
However, only the BJP controls the investigative agencies like ED/CBI/Income Tax and can give out large infrastructure contracts. Only the BJP can coerce and blackmail companies at scale, he stated
He accused that the BJP has looted the donations given to the Congress party by the common public by freezing “our accounts and forcibly withdrawing 115.32 crores from them.”
He continued that no political party, including the BJP, pays income tax, yet the Congress party’s 11 bank accounts were frozen.
