New Delhi: Pitching for transparency in political funding, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today dared BJP to reveal details of its coffers, reiterating his allegation that demonetisation must be rolled back immediately as it was a “huge scam”.
He also rubbished charges that AAP was opposing demonetisation as it has hit the party’s prospects in Punjab.
“Why doesn’t Modiji reveal who funded his 2014 election bid? All parties must do this, whether it is SP, BSP. Amit Shah (BJP President) unleashed all agencies including CBI, ED, Income Tax after us but could not find anything, otherwise they would have jailed me by now. AAP maintains account of every paisa spent,” Kejriwal said.
He alleged that the entire demonetisation exercise was aimed at waiving debts owed by large industrialists through the money deposited by people, and that it would not unearth a single paisa of black money.
“Only three days ago, the SBI wrote off loans given to 63 industrialists worth Rs 7000 crore. Vijay Mallya was the biggest beneficiary of this write off, whose Rs 1200 crore loans were written off,” he said.
The AAP chief, who had demonstrated outside the RBI here with his Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee on Thursday, said by some estimates it would take “six more months” to print new notes of equivalent value that have been demonetised.
He made the remarks during a live session on social media site Facebook.
He said his allegations against Modi have not yet been countered by the BJP which he said “deepens the suspicion”.
Kejriwal had made some allegations against Modi pertaining to his tenure as Gujarat chief minister.
The BJP has “settings” with black money holders, he alleged, adding he would have supported Modi had the intention behind the move was correct, “but I cannot have blind faith on anyone”.
In the session, that lasted over 50 minutes, Kejriwal reiterated his demand that the exercise be rolled back, which he said was “very much possible even at this stage”.
Meanwhile, Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel met President Pranab Mukherjee and handed over to him a resolution passed by the Assembly on demonetisation during its emergency session. He also submitted some documents which were shown by Kejriwal while making some allegations against some “big politicians”.