PM Relief Fund: JP Nadda accused the previous Congress government of economic surrender to the Chinese
After launching an all-out attack on the Congress to suggest a surrender to the Chinese and double standards on dealing with China, the ruling BJP came out with three follow-up charges today against the opposition party.
BJP president JP Nadda, in a tweet this morning, released documents that he said showed that during the Manmohan Singh era, money from the Prime Minister's relief fund was diverted and donated to the Rajiv Gandhi foundation. Sonia Gandhi is chief of the foundation and the board includes Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, P Chidambaram and Manmohan Singh.
"PMNRF (Prime Minister's National Relief Fund), meant to help people in distress, was donating money to the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation in the UPA years. Who sat on the PMNRF board? Smt. Sonia Gandhi. Who chairs RGF? Smt. Sonia Gandhi. Totally reprehensible, disregarding ethics, processes and not bothering about transparency," said Mr Nadda.
The BJP chief also doubled down on allegations that the previous Congress government was guilty of economic surrender to the Chinese during Manmohan Singh's rule.
The ruling party released documents that it claimed were proof that the Congress-led UPA was keen to push for a regional trade agreement and the RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) with conditions that would be favourable to the Chinese and would increase the trade deficit between India and China.
"The Congress was exploring a regional trade agreement with China in 2007. Now they are anti-China? In 2005 a presentation was made to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on RTA (Regional Trade Agreement). Then Commerce Minister Kamal Nath proposed a Regional Trade Agreement to the high-level body, the Trade and Economic Relations Committee (TERC). The proposal said that it is logical to have an RTA with China," the document said.
The document alleged that the trade body, which was headed by Manmohan Singh, noted in 2012 that: "Staying out of the regional comprehensive economic partnership with China was not a practical option."
The BJP's entire allegation is based on the Congress's alleged willingness to go ahead with a regional economic partnership with China despite learning of the trade imbalance it will create in favour of China.
"Even though it was recognised on file that RCEP may result in Chinese imports and adversely impact domestic industry, despite this the Congress chose to go ahead without any economic rationale," the document alleged.
In a third allegation against the Congress, the BJP dug out the Budget speech in 1991 of Manmohan Singh, who was Finance Minister of the Congress government at the time.
"Budget speech document from 1991. Page 16, Para 57. Manmohan Singh gave 100 cr to Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, 20 cr a year for five years," a statement from the BJP said.
The Congress rubbished the series of allegations, calling them a "diabolical" attempt at diverting focus from the China crisis.
"The diabolical game of deception, diversion and disinformation is being played out by the BJP and JP Nadda to divert the attention of the country from the Chinese occupation of Galwan Valley, Pangong Tso and now Depsang up to the Y-junction, 18 km inside the LAC," Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said.
"This is the greatest disservice that the BJP and PM Narendra Modi are doing to the country. Instead of fighting China and defending our country, they are fighting the Congress party and undermining India's territorial integrity," said the Congress leader.