New Delhi: The ruling BJP has alleged that the previous Congress government had allocated Rs 100 crore to the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF) when Manmohan Singh was Finance Minister in 1991, but the funds could not be disbursed.
The Congress hit back at the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as party spokesperson Pawan Khera said “We want the Prime Minister to fight with China and drive back Chinese troops from our territory but he is fighting the Congress, the BJP is coming out with allegations daily which have no ground.”
The BJP alleged that the Budget speech of 1991-92 by Manmohan Singh as Finance Minister on July 24, 1991 has the details of the funds to RGF.
“The Rajiv Gandhi Foundation has been established to perpetuate the memory of the great leader and to promote the ideals and objectives for which he lived and laid down his life,” the BJP quoted Singh as having said in the speech.
The Congress on Thursday alleged that BJP is using “diversionary tactics” after BJP levelled allegations that RGF received donations from the Chinese Embassy.
Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala had said, “Please stop living in 2005 and start answering questions in 2020”.
The chairperson of the RGF’s board of trustees is party interim chief Sonia Gandhi , while its board includes former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former Congress President Rahul Gandhi, former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi, among others.
The controversy erupted after BJP alleged that “Donations showed results soon after. RGF did not just one but several studies on how a Free Trade Agreement between India and China is desirable and required. Studies argued that India needs the FTA much more than China and should pursue it as part of its efforts to improve bilateral relations,” said Amit Malviya, head of the BJP’s IT cell.
