The Congress party, India’s main opposition political group, accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government on Thursday of stifling democracy and crippling the party by freezing its bank accounts in a tax dispute ahead of national elections.
India has announced that a six-week general election will start April 19, with most polls predicting a victory for Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
Rahul Gandhi, a former Congress party chief, said it is unable to campaign properly with its accounts frozen.
The BJP rejected the allegations, saying the Congress party’s bank accounts were partially frozen because it had failed to file an income tax return for cash donations it received in 2017-18 and had therefore lost the tax exemption available to political parties.
BJP President Jagat Prakash Nadda said the Congress party was making the accusations against Indian democracy and institutions because it feared an “historic defeat” in the elections.
India’s Supreme Court is scheduled to take up the Congress party’s complaint early next month after it was rejected by tax appeal authorities, BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters.
The original article contains 315 words, the summary contains 180 words. Saved 43%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The Congress party, India’s main opposition political group, accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government on Thursday of stifling democracy and crippling the party by freezing its bank accounts in a tax dispute ahead of national elections.
India has announced that a six-week general election will start April 19, with most polls predicting a victory for Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
Rahul Gandhi, a former Congress party chief, said it is unable to campaign properly with its accounts frozen.
The BJP rejected the allegations, saying the Congress party’s bank accounts were partially frozen because it had failed to file an income tax return for cash donations it received in 2017-18 and had therefore lost the tax exemption available to political parties.
BJP President Jagat Prakash Nadda said the Congress party was making the accusations against Indian democracy and institutions because it feared an “historic defeat” in the elections.
India’s Supreme Court is scheduled to take up the Congress party’s complaint early next month after it was rejected by tax appeal authorities, BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters.
The original article contains 315 words, the summary contains 180 words. Saved 43%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!