The Congress on Friday received fresh income-tax notices demanding Rs 1,823 crore, a hammer blow that threatened to deepen its financial crisis ahead of the general election and prompted it to accuse the Narendra Modi government of “tax
terrorism”.

The Congress said the income-tax department, which earlier imposed a Rs 210-crore fine on the party and froze some of its bank accounts, had clamped the latest penalty on the strength of entries mentioned in diaries seized in 2019.

Friday’s development comes at a time when the US has urged “fair, transparent and timely legal processes” on actions against India’s Opposition parties, such as the freezing of the Congress’s bank accounts and the arrest of Delhi chief minister
Arvind Kejriwal.

An embattled Congress has lined up countermeasures to at least be able to fight the April-June general election. While it has petitioned the Supreme Court seeking relief, with the case listed for April 1, a separate public interest petition is being contemplated to accuse the BJP of more serious violations that the income-tax department has allegedly ignored.

Congress treasurer Ajay Maken said that data available on the Election Commission website — based on the BJP’s submissions — indicate the ruling party should have been fined Rs 4,600 crore for multiple violations of the norms applied to the Congress.

“We were fined Rs 210 crore because 23 of our MPs and MLAs gave cash worth Rs 14.25 lakh even as we furnished complete details of these persons along with their addresses and PAN cards,” Maken said at a news conference he addressed with party communications chief Jairam Ramesh.

“But the BJP did not give details of 1,297 transactions worth Rs 42 crore in 2018-19; no addresses of the donors were given. Ninety-two donors were not even named.”

Maken said: “Calculated by the same criteria that was applied to us, a demand for Rs 4,600 crore should have been raised for the BJP. We will file a PIL on this. The new demand from us, totalling Rs 1,823 crore, has been raised on the basis of entries in
challan diaries.

“If that is valid, why no action on the entries in Jain hawala diaries which mentioned Advani and Sahara-Birla diaries that referred to payments made to Modi? We got a notice on the basis of 1993-94 returns. They have opened files of more returns.”

Maken said a sum of Rs 280 crore belonging to the Congress was lying frozen for over a month, arguing this was a plot to destroy the level playing field before the general election.

He said the party would explain to the Supreme Court that the matter was not restricted to tax technicalities and reflected a larger design to suffocate the Opposition parties just before the general election, thereby destroying democracy in the country.

Maken added that two other Opposition parties had received income-tax notices about their 1993-94 returns.

The Congress plans a popular outreach on the subject of a threat to Indian democracy.

Rahul Gandhi on Friday took the unusual step of issuing a veiled threat to the bureaucrats who had allegedly connived with the government to hobble democracy.

“After the change of government, there will surely be action against those who disrobed democracy. And the action will be so strong that nobody will ever dare to repeat such activities. This is my guarantee,” he posted on X.

Rahul used the hashtag #BJPTaxTerrorism to make the context clear.

Party general secretary K.C. Venugopal issued a statement saying: “As is known the world over, the BJP is out to financially eliminate the Congress and has filed multiple frivolous cases against us right on the eve of elections.”

He added: “Against this action, all PCCs will be protesting across the country tomorrow (Saturday), in every district. This is not about our party alone, it is a systematic bludgeoning of the people’s voice. And the people will revolt.”

Venugopal has instructed all the state units to organise protests from Saturday in all the districts. A public rally at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan on March 31 has already been announced, where the Modi government will be accused of coercive tactics to crush the Opposition.