By IANS,
New Delhi: Seeking to counter the opposition and civil society on the issue of corruption, the Congress Friday released a booklet which accuses the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) “of a grand design to usurp power through undemocratic means”.
The booklet “The Congress view on present situation-I” says that right wing fundamentalist forces were under pressure for losing political ground in the recent elections and for having been found out and being accused in several terrorist cases including bomb blasts in Malegaon, Mecca Masjid and the Samjhauta Express.
“The RSS is the fountain head of the sinister design to push India into the medieval age. The BJP is its chosen political instrument. The RSS has also spawned a number of frontal organisations to carry out its agenda. No matter how often the RSS and its instrumentalities fail in their attempts to win power through elections, they will try every trick to impose their regressive and reactionary agenda upon the country,” the booklet said.
“The present attempt to denigrate democratic institutions, elections, elected representatives, parliament and parliamentarians and the Constitution itself and dub all these as a failure is part of their grand design to usurp power through undemocratic means,” it said.
Without mentioning the anti-corruption agitation of Baba Ramdev and statements by Anna Hazare-led civil society movement on the Lokpal bill, the booklet said Congress has provided good governance and will continue to do so.
Listing various anti-corruption measures taken by the government, it hits out at BJP for its poor performance in the recent assembly polls to five states.
“The BJP, which is the principal opposition party and nurses ambitions of becoming the ruling party, contested 411 seats and won five seats! Although elections in states do not amount to a referendum on performance of central government, they are crucial indicators of mood of people,” the booklet said.
The booklet contests several demands of Baba Ramdev including the figure quoted by him of the amount of black money stashed abroad.
“To suggest that Rs.400 lakh crore is stashed abroad is a preposterous claim… Also to suggest that the Indian rupee can equal 50 US dollars betrays one’s colossal ignorance. To demand that currency notes of denomination of Rs.1,000 and Rs.500 should be demonetized is not only impractical but fraught with grave consequences,” it said.
The booklet said BJP’s claim that the quantum of black money was between $250 billion and $500 billion was absurd.
It said the government had unearthed Rs.18,750 crore in income tax searches, Rs.12,000 crore in income tax surveys, Rs.33,784 crore in mispricing of goods and services and Rs.22,697 crore of taxes had been collected due to special attention on cross border transactions and business deals.