Amit Shah said the Opposition parties used to take political donations in cash because out of a donation of ₹ 1,100, they used to deposit ₹ 100 in the name of the party and keep ₹ 1,000 in their own pockets.
Noting that he fully respects the Supreme Court order on electoral bonds, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday said the scheme was introduced to end black money in politics and added that it should have been improved rather than scrapped.
Mr Shah also said that the one nation, one election is the concept of the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and when it is implemented, it will ensure faster development and end recurring expenditure.
“Electoral bonds were introduced to end the influence of black money in Indian politics. Everyone has to accept the decision given by the Supreme Court. I fully respect the Supreme Court decision. But I feel that instead of completely scrapping the electoral bonds, it should have been improved,” he said at an interaction at the India Today Conclave.
Referring to the Congress, the home minister said the leaders of the opposition party used to take political donations in cash because out of a donation of ₹ 1,100, they used to deposit ₹ 100 in the name of the party and keep ₹ 1,000 in their own pockets.
“The Congress party has run this system for years,” he said.
Mr Shah said it has been said that the electoral bonds have benefitted the BJP and Rahul Gandhi has made a statement that it is the biggest extortion activity.
“I want to make my stance clear about it. Out of the total ₹ 20,000 crore electoral bonds, the BJP has got approximately ₹ 6,000 crore. Where did the rest of the bonds go? TMC has got ₹ 1,600 crore, Congress got ₹ 1,400 crore, BRS got ₹ 1,200 crore, BJD got ₹ 750 crore and DMK got ₹ 639 crore.
“We have got ₹ 6,000 crore despite having 303 MPs and the rest got ₹ 14,000 crore against 242 MPs. What is the hue and cry about? I can say that once the accounts are settled they will not be able to face you all,” he said.
Referring to the one nation, one election proposal, Mr Shah said that due to elections taking place many times across the country, a large amount of money is spent on conducting polls.
Most importantly, he said, due to the imposition of the Model Code of Conduct, the decision-making of the government has been adversely affected and hence development work is stalled.
“The idea of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP behind one nation, one election is that elections are held again and again in this country and the people are busy in elections and this leads to repeated expenditure.
“Due to the model code of conduct, many development works come to a halt. One nation, one election is a solution for this,” he said.
Asked about the seat-sharing talks in Bihar, the home minister said everything will be settled in the next week.
“Everyone is united in NDA in Bihar and this time NDA will win all the seats in Bihar under the leadership of Bharatiya Janata Party,” he said.
Commenting on Delhi, where the Congress and the AAP joined hands to flight the polls, he said the BJP got more than 50 per cent votes in all seats of Delhi in the last two Lok Sabha polls and it is going to increase its vote share this time.
