NEW DELHI, Jun 28: Hitting back at the BJP for raising the issue of funding to the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, the Congress on Sunday alleged that Chinese firms were contributing to the PM CARES fund (PMCF) and asked why it was accepting such donations at a time when India and China have been engaged in a tense border standoff.
There was no immediate response from the government on the allegations.
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his “18 meetings” with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the last six years, and asked why he has not yet called China “an aggressor,” hours after Modi in his ‘Mann ki Baat’ radio broadcast asserted that India had given a befitting reply to those who cast an evil eye on its territory in Ladakh.
“I implore the prime minister to say that China is an aggressor,” Singhvi said.
“What is most worrying and alarming for national security is the fact of donations received by Prime Minister Modi from the Chinese companies in his (seemingly personal) PM CARES fund,” Singhvi said at a virtual press conference.
“If the prime minister of India will compromise his position by accepting donations of hundreds of crores from Chinese companies in the controversial and opaque fund, how will he defend the country against the Chinese aggression? Prime Minister Modi needs to answer,” he said.
The PMCF was set up in March this year with an objective to deal with any emergency arising due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Since then, some opposition parties have demanded the donations received by the fund be made public.
Singhvi also demanded that Modi tell how much has China intruded into Indian territory and how many posts and land it has occupied.
“The PM should say we are not going to compromise and we will push China back,” he said, adding the whole country would stand behind Modi if he did so.
Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said that in his 33 minutes of ‘Mann Ki Baat’, “the PM did not even name China once.” (PTI)
