Piyush Goyal said the electoral bonds scheme was meant to bring transparency in politics.
The ruling BJP on Thursday dismissed the opposition's criticism of the electoral bonds scheme, terming it as an outburst of certain "defeated, dejected and corrupt" politicians who are running out of ways to generate money through illegal means.
"People who are revolting against electoral bonds have grown used to black money and believe in its usage during elections. This is an alliance of defeated and dejected corrupt politicians who do not want clean, tax-paid transparent money to fund elections," Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said at a press conference.
The Congress had on Thursday walked out of both houses of Parliament to protest against the twin issues of privatisation and electoral bonds, terming them as "big scams aimed at making corruption official". The ensuing chaos resulted in the adjournment of the Rajya Sabha.
Piyush Goyal claimed that the electoral bonds scheme was introduced by the Narendra Modi government with the sole intention of cleaning up national politics. "For years, certain parties made money through illegal means. Now that only honest money can come into politics, they are hurt. This is why they are trying to mislead the public," he told reporters, adding that use of black money was rampant during the Congress-led UPA rule.
Karnataka's BJP wing, for its part, asked the Congress to look within before pointing fingers at the central government. "Your bosses Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are out on bail in the National Herald case. Your ex-Finance Minister (P Chidambaram) is in jail for money laundering. Your party's troublemaker is on bail for economic offences. Before making wild allegations, count the skeletons in your cupboard," it said in a tweet.
Several NGOs and opposition parties have raised concerns over the use of electoral bonds, a bearer banking instrument used for funding political parties. A study conducted by the Association for Democratic Reforms earlier this year had revealed that the BJP was the biggest beneficiary of the scheme -- garnering nearly 95% of the electoral bonds.