POLITICS

Now Congress takes on BJP on PM CARES Fund

By IndianMandarins- 29 Jun 2020
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After being cornered on getting funds for Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, Congress has hit back at the BJP alleging that PM CARES Fund was accepting donations from Chinese firms when the armies of the two countries were engaged in a border standoff in Ladakh.

Senior Congress leader spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his 18 meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the last six years and asked why he has not yet called China an aggressor. “I implore the Prime Minister to say China is an aggressor,” he said.

Singhvi said reports suggest the PM CARES Fund has received Rs 9,678 crore by May 20. The Congress spokesperson alleged Huawei has donated Rs 7 crore, TikTok Rs 30 crore, Paytm Rs 100 crore, Xiaomi Rs 15 crore and Oppo Rs 1 crore to the fund. HT couldn’t independently ascertain this.

Over the past few days, the BJP released details of contributions made to RGF by various state-owned companies, government departments, and the Chinese embassy. RGF is a private trust while the PM CARES Fund was set up in March this year to deal with any emergency arising due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It has already funded the purchase of around 50,000 ventilators by government hospitals across India.

One of the allegations against the Congress, aired repeatedly by various BJP leaders over the past few days, is that the contributions made by the Chinese embassy and the Chinese government to the private trust controlled by the Gandhi family encouraged the party-led United Progressive Alliance government to turn a blind eye to India’s soaring trade deficit with China.

The charges and counter-charges have come against the backdrop of the stand-off between the two armies in Eastern Ladakh, where, on June 15, 20 Indian soldiers lost their lives in countering a transgression by the Chinese. An unknown number of Chinese soldiers also died in the incident.

Singhvi alleged that it was the BJP that has maintained ties with the Communist Party of China (CPC) since 2007 and its presidents, starting with Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari and Amit Shah, have had the maximum number of exchanges with China.

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