Updated: September 20, 2020 2:55:24 am
** EDS: VIDEO RECORD ** New Delhi: TMC MP Mahua Moitra at the Lok Sabha during the current session of parliament on monsoons, in New Delhi, Tuesday, September 15, 2020. (Photo LSTV / PTI) ( PTI15-09- 2020_000191B)
Trinamool Congressional Leader Mahua Moitra launched a fierce attack on the PM Cares Fund in Lok Sabha on Saturday, arguing that it removes legal promises made under the GST regime and corners public funds to the detriment of state aid funds.
He said that the UPMs that compete to donate money to PM Cares are like “courtiers of the Emperor, competing with each other to give gifts with public funds.”
He also criticized the government for accepting funds from Chinese companies, saying that “no dying Indian would want to be connected to a fan paid with enemy money.”
During the debate on the tax bill and other laws (relaxation and amendment of certain provisions), Moitra said: “The Center cannot avoid its responsibility. You must cover Rs 2.35 crore lakh through loans. I wonder in such a situation: is incompetence post majeure (an event or effect that cannot be anticipated or controlled)? Is criminal negligence a post-major situation?
He said the “insidious goal of the bill” is to give blanket clearance “no liability” to the PM Cares Fund.
The TMC leader said: “The unfair treatment of identical contributions to PM Cares and state aid funds is against the public interest, against public policy, completely discourages corporate contributions that state governments would otherwise have obtained…. The honorable minister, when presenting the bill yesterday, read a long list of schoolchildren and retirees who had donated their meager savings to the PM Cares (Fund). But the honorable minister was strangely silent on the 38 USPs that donated more than Rs 2.1 billion to the Fund. More than 70 percent of the Fund’s corpus comes from these 38 donations.
“These are the UPM – (donations) with public funds. Without an audit, the conflict of interest is too wide for anyone to see …
“The PM Cares Fund diverts funds from local communities into this dark hole where not a speck of light can enter. Coal India has committed Rs 221 million to a fund, while it is unable to contribute to state aid funds from West Bengal and Jharkhand where it has 90 percent of its operations … it’s almost as if the emperor’s courtiers are competing with each other to give gifts to the emperor with public funds, “he said.
On the donations received from Chinese companies, he said: “If these irregularities were not enough, consider the massive donations from Chinese companies. This is shocking. Xiaomi, accused of spying on people, gave (PM Cares) Fund Rs 10 crore. Tik Tok, currently banned by this government, gave Rs 30 crore. Huawei, banned around the world for its well-documented links to the Chinese military, gave Rs 10 crore. Why did you take this money from our enemies? Why don’t you return this tainted money?
“I am sure that no dying Indian would want to be connected to a fan paid for with enemy money at this time. The dangers of these foreign donations are amplified by the fact that the PM Cares Fund is exempt from FCRA regulations, although it does not meet the precondition of a body whose funds are audited by the CAG. “
Moitra questioned the need to create a fund similar to the PMNRF on behalf of the Prime Minister, saying: “Prime ministers will come and go, but the existence of a fund is not in dispute. What is this need to name everything after an individual? What is this need? This is a democracy. This is not an elected autocracy. We need to remind this government. “
Stating that the Fund is raising money on the basis of a public charge, the Trinamool MP said: “The very name, PM Fund, makes people think that this is government authority. By saying he’s not under RTI, he’s running away from the transparency claim that he appears to be married to. Second, cabinet ministers are trustees who manage the funds. He is unacceptably expanding the scope of his ministerial post beyond the mandate determined by the constitution….
“In this atmosphere of fear and vengeance that prevails in this country, what public official will say that they do not want to donate,” asked Moitra.
He said the government “must stop lying all the time” about the growth rate, spending and the “ridiculous illusion that the prime minister cares. “Today’s India reminds me of Hans Christian Anderson’s stories about the emperor’s new clothes, where the emperor was not wrapped up in anything, but the sycophantic courtiers couldn’t tell him.”
She said: “The Bengali poet, Dhirendra Nath Chakraborty, in his poem ‘Ulongo Raja (The Naked King)’ said that only one innocent little boy in the entire kingdom had the courage to stand up and ask the naked emperor, ‘Raja, tor kapod koi? Today, I ask the same question: Emperor, where are your clothes?
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