Rahul Gandhi on Friday said the electoral bonds were used as “the biggest extortion racket in the world” while his party demanded criminal proceedings against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a Supreme Court-monitored investigation.

Congress communications chief Jairam Ramesh sought to link alleged donations to the BJP by corporate bodies via electoral bonds to the award of government contracts or intimidation by investigative agencies, alleging “quid pro quo” and “hafta” (protection money).

“Modi designed electoral bonds saying it will clean the political funding system in India. The truth has come out; it is the biggest extortion racket in the world,” Rahul said at a news conference in Thane, Maharashtra.

“It was used for extortion, for sharing the profits (from) contracts, for stealing money from projects — and this was orchestrated by the Prime Minister.”

He went on: “This is the biggest anti-national activity. Corruption of this scale is unimaginable. The entire infrastructure of the State was deployed for corruption. The CBI, Enforcement Directorate and income-tax (department) were doing extortion for the BJP. The scheme was Modi’s brainchild.”

Congress veteran and former finance minister P. Chidambaram described the now-scraped electoral bonds scheme — which allowed anonymous donations to political parties — as “legalised bribery”.

K.C. Venugopal, the Congress general secretary in charge of organisation, posted a comment on X saying: “The electoral bonds list reveals that it is a scam that contains hundreds of scams within it. Quid pro quo, extortion, policy changes and vendetta have all been exposed.

“Let’s be very clear — this is a scam designed and meticulously executed from the very top. The Prime Minister and his ministers are liable to be booked under multiple criminal laws, and this level of rigging and corporate takeover of the system must be punished in the strictest terms.”

“We demand a high-level inquiry by the Supreme Court into this scam and an immediate freezing of BJP’s bank accounts until this inquiry is completed.”

Ramesh alleged that the electoral bond scheme involved coercion, blackmail, extortion, kickbacks and money-laundering.

“It was a Chanda do-dhandha lo (Give donations, get business) scheme. So far, the electoral bonds data exposes at least four corrupt tactics of the BJP: 1. Quid Pro Quo 2. Hafta Vasooli 3. Kickbacks 4. Money-laundering through shell companies,” he said.

P Chidambaram. File Photo

“There are many cases of companies that have donated electoral bonds, and immediately afterwards gotten huge benefits from the Government. Megha Engineering & Infra has given over Rs 800 crore. In April 2023, they donated Rs 140 crore, and just one month later, they were awarded the Rs 14,400 crore Thane-Borivali Twin Tunnel Project.

“Jindal Steel & Power gave Rs 25 crore on October 7, 2022, and just three days later, they won the Gare Palma IV/6 coal mine, on October 10, 2022.”

Explaining the charge of “hafta vasooli”, Ramesh said: “The strategy is simple — raid a target through the ED/ CBI/ IT, and then seek hafta. At least 14 of the top 30 donors have been raided.

“Earlier this year an investigation found that after ED/ CBI/ IT raids, companies were forced to donate to the BJP via electoral trusts. Many of the same companies have donated through EBs (electoral bonds), like Hetero Pharma and Yashoda Hospital. The IT department raided Shirdi Sai Electricals in December 2023, and in January 2024, they donated Rs 40 crore.”

He added: “Future Gaming & Hotels has donated over Rs 1,200 crore, making it the largest donor in the data so far. Here is the chronology: April 2, 2022: ED raids Future, and 5 days later they donate Rs 100 crore. October 2023, IT department raids Future, and the same month they donate Rs 65 crore.

“Vedanta got the Radhikapur West private coal mine on March 3, 2021, and then in April 2021, they donated Rs 25 crore. Megha Engineering & Infra got the Rs 4,500 crore Zojila tunnel project in August 2020, then donated Rs 20 crore in October 2020. Megha got the BKC bullet train station contract in December 2022, and donated Rs 56 crore the same month.”