The Indian National Congress party said its bank accounts with 2.1 billion rupees ($25.3 million) in deposits were frozen by the Income Tax Department months before the national elections.
The main opposition party on Friday called the move a “serious attack on India's democracy”, adding that it had allowed some accounts to operate until February 21, when the Income Tax Tribunal will hear the case.
Congress Treasurer Ajay Maken told reporters that the party filed a complaint with the tax authorities after it directed banks to freeze funds in its accounts.
“Two days ago, we received information that the checks issued by our company were not accepted by the bank. … We have no money to pay the electricity bill, no money to pay the salaries of our employees,” Maken said. Told.
The tax authorities' action comes just weeks before the date for a general election, which must be held by May, is due to be announced.
The ruling also came a day after the Supreme Court, in a landmark order, declared a secret campaign finance system called campaign bonds illegal. The scheme was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government in 2017.
“Do you think democracy is alive in our country when the accounts of the main opposition parties are frozen just two weeks before national elections are announced?” Maken asked reporters.
“Don’t you think we’re heading towards a one-party dictatorship?”
Maken said the Rs 2.1 billion frozen by the tax department was raised by the party through crowdfunding and member activities, adding that the dispute with the tax department was related to issues dating back to 2018-2019.
Mr Maken acknowledged that the party had delayed filing returns by up to 45 days, but insisted it had done nothing to justify such penalties.
“Today is a sad day for democracy in India,” he said, adding that his party would challenge the decision and stage a public protest.
Once India's dominant political party, the Congress' power has fallen to historic lows since Mr. Modi and his right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014, both in parliament and in many states.
Critics and human rights groups have accused the Modi government of using law enforcement to selectively target political opponents.
“The power-drunk Modi government has frozen the accounts of the country's largest opposition party,” Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge posted on X. “We appeal to the judiciary to save the country's multiparty system and protect India's democracy.”
Virendra Sachdeva, president of the Delhi branch of the BJP, said the Congress was responsible for freezing the account.
“It is unfortunate that a big party like the Congress is not following the government's rules,” he told the Press Trust of India news agency.
“If you don’t follow the rules, you have to face the consequences.”
Government agencies 'act like handmaidens of the Bharatiya Janata Party'
Friday's announcement comes in the wake of a number of legal sanctions and active investigations against prominent opponents of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, the scion of the Gandhi-Nehru dynasty that has dominated Indian politics for decades, was found guilty of criminal defamation last year after a Bharatiya Janata Party member filed a complaint against him. Ta.
Mr Gandhi's two-year prison sentence, which disqualified him from parliament for some time pending the verdict in the high court, raised concerns about democratic norms in the world's most populous country.
The Congress is part of an opposition coalition that hopes to challenge Mr. Modi in this year's polls. It turns out that other key figures in the block are also the subject of the investigation.
Arvind Kejriwal, leader of the Aam Aadmi Party and chief minister of the National Capital Territory of Delhi, has been repeatedly summoned by law enforcement authorities probing allegations of corruption in the allocation of liquor licenses.
This month, police arrested Hemant Soren, previously chief minister of the eastern state of Jharkhand and another key figure in the rebel alliance, on suspicion of abetting illegal land sales.
India's main financial investigative agency, the Enforcement Directorate, continues to investigate at least four other prime ministers or their families, all of whom belong to the BJP's political rivals.
Recent records of government agencies show they were “acting as the ruling party's handmaidens to intimidate political opponents,” Hartosh Singh Bal of current affairs magazine Caravan told Agence France-Presse. Told.
Other investigations against former Bharatiya Janata Party rivals who later switched allegiance to the ruling party have also been dropped.
According to surveys, the Bharatiya Janata Party is likely to win its third consecutive victory in this year's general elections, due in part to the appeal of Modi's supremacy to India's Hindu majority.
Congress is also expected to see a slight improvement in its voting position.
