People who are opposing electoral bonds believe in black money: Union Minister Piyush Goyal

Hitting back at the Congress over the issue of electoral bonds, the BJP said on Thursday "the alliance of the defeated and the dejected corrupt politicians" do not want clean, tax-paid transparent money to fund elections. "Electoral bonds brought in honest money in electoral politics. People who are revolting against electoral bonds have grown used to black money and believe in its usage during elections," senior BJP leader and Union Minister.

New Delhi: Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said that the people who are opposing the implementation of electoral bonds believe in black money and have become habitual of using that money in the elections.

"Only those who are opposing the electoral bonds believe in black money and have become habitual of using it in the elections from the past several years. This is the alliance of defeated and the dejected corrupt politicians who do not want clean tax paid transparent money to fund election processes," said Goyal said in a press conference at the BJP headquarters here.

He further pointed out multiple scams happened during the Congress regime like the Colgate, Telecom, Bofors and Nagarwala scams. "Recently the Election Commission (EC) seized crores of rupees from the residences of the Congress leaders. From a very long time parties like Congress have encouraged corruption and used that black money in the politics," he added.

Goyal highlighted that the BJP has always worked towards bringing transparency in the donations to the political parties. "At the time of NDA, BJP amended the Income Tax Act, we allowed donations to the political parties so that money from legitimate sources can be encouraged," he added.

Congress party on Thursday had alleged that corruption has been covered up through electoral bonds scheme and the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) had floated a request to issue "illegal" electoral bonds ahead of Karnataka assembly elections in 2018.