 "AAP funding takes centre stage in Delhi elections")
The AAP shot off a letter to the Chief Justice of India, demanding a special investigation team probe into political funding of all the political parties and also letters to BJP President Amit Shah and Congress President Sonia Gandhi asking them to join such an investigation.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the AAP of being “exposed as dishonest”, while AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal countered it by challenging the Union government to arrest him. Modi said, “People have talked about black money but this is the first time we have heard about wrong deeds in the middle of the night.... You have betrayed people’s trust." He was referring to the allegations of money laundering by “four dubious firms” to the AAP last year, which was revealed by a disenchanted group AAP Volunteer Action Manch (AVAM) on Monday.
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Modi took an indirect dig at Kejriwal, saying his party is unaware of its own source of funds. “Those who posed as Mr Clean are exposed as dishonest today.”
At a rally in Trilokpuri, Kejriwal “challenged” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to use the government’s machinery to investigate his party’s source of funds and arrest him. “In the last few days, they have accused us of hawala transactions. The finance minister said I have been caught red-handed.” said Kejriwal. “Why don’t you arrest me? I challenge you to arrest me. They don’t have the courage.”
Kejriwal said he had not committed any crime and even his most “vocal critics” view him as being honest.
“They are only involving in mud-slinging politics…They don’t want issue-based politics,” Kejriwal added.
The AAP charged BJP of trying to “make up” their votes in swing constituencies. “The BJP is doing nothing but trying to make up on seats where margin is 300-400 votes,” AAP senior leader Kumar Vishwas said.
The AVAM continued to level charges against AAP and claimed the party had taken donation from dubious firms by giving cash against a cheque.
The group produced two sample or undated cheques of Rs 50 lakh each bearing no name claiming the volunteer group had received them from these “dubious firms".
However, the AVAM refused to reveal any details of the cheques. AVAM leaders said they had only promised to give Rs 1 crore to these firms and the companies had said it will put dates to the cheques once they receive the money. "We just want to establish all the money received through a cheque is not clean…First let Kejriwal and his party give their defence then we will also tell how we got these cheques...Two of the four companies have their names as donors on the cheque," said Gopal Goel.
At a press conference, AAP leaders put up a brave front and said they had carried out due diligence before receiving the donations. They said they would approach investigative agencies if the Central government doesn’t start a probe into the matter.
“The BJP and AVAM are hand in gloves with each other. If by evening, the BJP doesn’t start its investigation, we will go to the agencies ourselves and ask for a probe,” said AAP leader Ashish Khetan.
Former banker and AAP leader Meera Sanyal said, “The banks are supposed to do KYC (know your customer) checks and I believe it is being done. If Finance Minister Arun Jaitley wants to know who are involved in this, he can just call up the CEOs of these banks right away and can know the answer to the queries within minutes…We can’t do that,” Sanyal said. She added the party cannot access the private details of the donors and can rely on his self-declared information.
How does AAP receive funds?
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) accepts donation in three forms: cash, cheque and online payment through debit, credit card or net banking. There is no upper limit on amount to be donated
Party claims every donation detail is uploaded over its website
The party accepts donation in cash only till Rs 20,000
Donations in the range of Rs 20,000-Rs 10,00,000 is accepted through online medium or cheque
The party accepts only cheques for donation amount above Rs 10,00,000
Any donation above Rs 10 lakh is considered to be a big donation and goes to party’s Political Affairs Committee (PAC) for verification
The PAC scrutinises each such donations on several grounds:
1) If donation is made by a company, it checks whether it is registered on Registrar of Companies or not
2) PAN card or TIN number
3) If donation is channelised through a registered bank
It also:
Issues a disclaimer to the donor about the details being made public; uploads details on party's website
Performs ‘Google' check on any criminal background
What the AAP says it cannot do:
1) Perform verification of private details of the donor
2) Verify if the details provided by the companies to the RoC or the banks are authentic
The party is accepting donation for the Delhi elections till date and has claimed it has received close to its targeted Rs 30 crore for the polls