India's main opposition says bank accounts frozen ahead of elections

India’s main opposition Congress party says its bank accounts have been frozen by the income tax department weeks before the expected announcement of national elections.

Senior Congress leader Ajay Maken said on Friday that the bank accounts of both Congress and Youth Congress were frozen by the income tax department.

“We were told that the accounts of India’s main opposition party have been frozen,” Maken told reporters at a press conference.

Along with getting hold of the party’s accounts, the IT department also slapped the party with a payment demand for 2.1 billion rupees ($25.3 million) in relation to a probe of its income tax filing for the 2018-19 financial year.

He maintained that the party had not committed any wrongdoing to justify such a punishment and proposed that the intention behind it was to marginalize the party prior to the elections.

The party said it has approached the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal against the action of the department.

The announcement came after the party found out that the banks were not honoring the checks that the party was issuing.

It was after the party inquired into the matter and reached the conclusion that the accounts had been seized.

“When the principal opposition party’s accounts have been frozen just two weeks before the announcement of the national elections, do you think democracy is alive in our country?” he asked reporters.

“What does the government want to show by freezing the accounts of the main Opposition party just a few weeks before the announcement of elections?” Maken asked, stating that the grounds on which the accounts were frozen were laughable.

He further added that the money which was deposited into the party’s accounts was collected through crowdfunding, which amounted to around 250 million Indian rupees ($3 million).

The party demanded that the ruling Bharatiya Janta Party’s (BJP) accounts should be frozen for having unconstitutional bonds.

Indian political analysts and rights groups have alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration is employing law enforcement agencies to specifically target its political adversaries.

At least six killed in anti-Muslim violence after mosque demolition in India

At least six people have been killed in India and dozens severely injured during communal clashes against Muslims after the demolition of a mosque and an adjoining madrasa by the authorities in the northern state of Uttarakhand.

On Thursday, in a landmark decision, the Supreme Court ruled out the electoral bonds scheme, calling it “unconstitutional” which provides blanket anonymity to political donors, as well as critical legal amendments allowing rich corporations to make unlimited political donations.

In India, while contesting for national-level elections, huge amounts of cash inflow become necessary.  Even the BJP won the elections when it used to be the opposition party in India, through huge sums of corporate and private donations.

The BJP has been alleged by critics of influencing the country’s top court decisions, just to make it difficult for other parties to contest, while easing its way out as its popularity among the majority is already soaring ahead of elections, ever since Modi inaugurated the controversial Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.

Experts have also argued that the BJP has finally turned India into its long-promised “Hindu Rashtra” (Hindu nation) where all of its decisions (whether parliamentary or legal) are influenced and decided by pro-Hindutva lobbies.

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