The government is investigating the source of foreign funding to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said Monday and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal hit back, demanding a probe into the funding of the BJP and the Congress as well.
"We have got complaints about foreign funding to AAP and are probing the matter. Investigations take time and we are looking for the source behind the funding," Shinde said.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ravishakar Prasad also said a probe was needed in foreign funding, if any.
"Foreign funding of a political party is not allowed, it should be probed," he said.
Kejriwal, the AAP's chief ministerial candidate for Delhi, said he was ready for any probe only if the sources of funding to the BJP and the Congress were also investigated.
"They can probe us but they should also investigate the funding of the BJP and Congress. The home minister should reveal the source of the Congress party's funding too," said Kejriwal.
"We don't have foreign funding, we have NRI donors. We have put details of all donors and audit report on our website."
AAP leader Kumar Vishwas challenged the government to prove them guilty.
"There's no point in making allegations against us. I challenge both the Congress and the BJP to prove us guilty. We receive all our funds in a transparent manner," he said.
"Both the parties are sacred of us," he added.
A statement from the party later quoted figures from the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) and said two-thirds of the funding of political parties like the BJP, Congress and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) comes from unknown sources.
The debutant AAP appears to have dimmed the prospects of both the Congress, which has been ruling Delhi for the past 15 years, and the opposition BJP which hopes to gain from a strong anti-incumbency factor.
"ADR's analysis had also revealed that Congress and BJP had got funding from a foreign company - Vedanta - something which is not allowed under the Sections 3 and 4 of the Foreign Contributions (Regulation) Act 1976," the AAP statement said.
"Thus, the question is whether the other political parties follow what they preach about transparency? Are they ready to share the source of their funding?" it added.
