Calling the latest notice from the Income Tax Department “tax terrorism”, Congress treasurer Ajay Maken told reporters the party would fight the demand in court.
India will vote in seven phases between April 19 and June 1 in general elections Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to win and secure a record-equalling third straight term.
“The law is on our side, we have no doubt about it, but by the time we get relief, elections will be over,” Maken said. The Supreme Court is expected to hear the case on April 1, he added.
A tax department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday, which is a public holiday. The tax department has said it can not comment on individual tax notices as they are confidential.
Congress, which has been ruled by the Gandhi-Nehru family, was once India’s most dominant political party and has accused Modi of trying to “cripple it financially” before the elections through the tax department.
Last month, the party said the authorities froze some of its bank accounts pending a tax case that dates back to 2018-19 involving 1.35 billion rupees, and its bid to contest this in court was dismissed.
Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has said that the tax case was not politically motivated.
Asked how much the party would be left with to contest the elections after the two tax demands, Maken said: “You think there will be anything left after this?”
Congress has ruled India for 54 of its 76 years since independence from Britain, but it has struggled to win over voters since Modi swept to power in 2014.
India’s main opposition Congress party said on Friday that its bank accounts had been frozen by the tax department just weeks before the expected announcement of national elections.
Critics and rights groups have accused India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government of using law enforcement agencies to selectively target its political foes.
Congress spokesman Ajay Maken said the action against his party was aimed at sidelining it ahead of the polls.
“When the principal opposition party’s accounts have been frozen just two weeks before the announcement of the national elections, do you think democracy is alive in our country?” he asked reporters.
“Don’t you think it is going towards one party system?” he added.
Four of Congress’s accounts had been frozen after an investigation of the party’s 2018-19 income tax returns, Maken said.
He added that the tax department had issued a payment demand for 2.1 billion rupees ($25.3 million) in relation to its probe.
Maken conceded that the party had filed its returns late by up to 45 days but insisted it had done nothing to warrant such a penalty.
“Today is a sad day for Indian democracy,” he said, adding that the party was appealing the decision in court and would stage public protests.
Friday’s announcement follows numerous legal sanctions and active investigations against leading opponents of Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi, scion of the dynasty that dominated Indian politics for decades, was convicted of criminal libel last year after a complaint by a member of Modi’s party.
His two-year prison sentence saw him disqualified from parliament for a time until the verdict was suspended by a higher court, but raised concerns over democratic norms in Congress is a member of an opposition party alliance hoping to challenge Modi at this year’s polls, and other leading figures in the bloc have also found themselves under investigation.
Arvind Kejriwal, leader of the Aam Aadmi Party and chief minister of the capital region Delhi, has repeatedly been summoned by investigators probing alleged corruption in the allocation of liquor licences.
Earlier this month police arrested Hemant Soren, until then the chief minister of eastern Jharkhand state and another leading figure in the opposition alliance, for allegedly facilitating an illegal land sale.
India’s main financial investigation agency, the Enforcement Directorate, has ongoing probes against at least four other chief ministers or their families, all of whom belong to the BJP’s political opponents.
Other investigations have been dropped against erstwhile BJP rivals who later switched their allegiance to the ruling party.
Virendra Sachdeva, president of the BJP’s Delhi branch, said on Friday that Congress had only itself to blame for the freezing of its accounts.
“It is unfortunate that a big party like Congress is not following government rules,” he told the Press Trust of India news agency.
“If it is not following the rules, then it has to face the consequences. “
