The Congress on Tuesday described the PM Cares Fund as a “fraud and a farce”, asking the Narendra Modi government why it was so desperately fighting to escape scrutiny and accountability.

Controversies about the PM Cares Fund are not new. The government has been roundly criticised for the lack of transparency from different quarters over the last few years, with the matter reaching the courts. However, the Congress’s fresh salvo has been prompted by the new revelation that government companies contributed at least Rs 2,913.6 crore to the fund between 2019 and 2022.

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said: “The government seeks immunity from scrutiny by arguing that it (the fund) does not receive budgetary support. What else is the contribution of such huge amounts by Navratnas and mini-Navratnas? This is taxpayers’ money. Constitutional morality doesn’t require legal compulsion."

Singhvi asked: “What prevents the Prime Minister from making the details public — receipts and expenditure?”

The revelation that around 57 companies in which the government had a significant stake contributed more than 59.3 per cent of the total Rs 4,910.5 crore was made by the Business Standard financial newspaper on the basis of data analysis by the tracker primeinfobase.com for all companies listed on the National Stock Exchange.

The newspaper reported that the top five donors among the 57 companies were the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (Rs 370 crore), NTPC (Rs 330 crore), Power Grid Corporation of India (Rs 275 crore), Indian Oil Corporation (Rs 265 crore), and the Power Finance Corporation (Rs 222.4 crore).

The Congress has expressed outrage at the degree of the camouflaging, citing how the fund was declared private despite using the Government of India’s insignia and despite the Prime Minister himself heading it. The other trustees of the fund are the defence minister, home minister and the finance minister of India.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge tweeted: “PM Cares is equal to PM Shares public money. The Prime Minister’s Office told the Supreme Court — No Government money is credited to the Fund. In Delhi High Court, the affidavit said ‘the Fund is not State or Public Authority and RTI/CAG scrutiny can’t be applied’. An epidemic of loot during adversity by Modi Government.”

The fund was constituted during the Covid-19 crisis.

“They say, ‘We don’t receive budgetary support’, but de facto budgetary support is funnelled through public sector units without any legislative sanction. This is a fraud and a farce,” Singhvi said.

Asked if the Congress suspected the fund was being misused for political purposes, Singhvi said: “How can we say that when the details of expenditure are not available? What’s the problem in putting out details on its website on a monthly basis? Or, bring out a white paper to tell the nation how the money was spent in the last four years. Instead, the government is fighting at different levels, including the courts, to block information. They don’t allow CAG scrutiny, not even RTI (Right to Information).”

Singhvi added: “It is not about legal compulsion. The disclosure should be made on the sacred principles of transparency and accountability. What’s the problem in transforming the fund into a statutory fund? What’s there to hide that the government is ensuring zero accountability, zero audit, zero transparency? What are the criteria for the deployment of the fund? Who are the beneficiaries?”

He said that no fund ever created by any Prime Minister before had received such large-scale contributions from PSUs or was beyond scrutiny.

Singhvi said: “In Delhi High Court, Justice Ravindra Bhat felt the fund could be brought under RTI but Justice Sunil Gaur differed. The matter was supposed to be examined by a larger bench. Why was the bench not constituted on such an important matter?”

By raising questions about constitutional morality and principles like transparency and accountability, the Congress is seeking to impress on the public that Modi has failed to demonstrate a commitment to these virtues. Rather, his government has appeared to adopt inflexible positions against transparency and investigation on many issues — from Rafale to Pegasus and Adani.