New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party may have illegally collected public donations in the name of government initiatives like Swachh Bharat, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao and Kisan Seva when it ran a fundraising campaign between December 2021 and February 2022, The Wire reported.
Carrying out the fundraising campaign back then through private platforms like narendramodi.in and the NaMo app, the saffron party requested on it platforms contributors to donate funds for the government schemes cited earlier.
Both the website and the app reportedly asked donors to choose one of the three government schemes described above here and list ‘party fund’ as ‘cause for donation’ while contributing to the saffron party.
B.R. Aravindakshan, Chennai-based senior journalist and news editor of channel Sathiyam TV, filed RTI queries which showed that the BJP was neither authorized nor had any special permission from central ministries or the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to collect donations for the Union government’s welfare schemes.
Responding to the RTI query, the ministries responsible for implementing the schemes unequivocally said that none of these platforms was authrorised or given any special permission to raise funds for the schemes.
BJP president J.P. Nadda announced ‘micro-donation’ campaign on December 25, 2021 on former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s birth anniversary alongside slating that the drive was to end on the death anniversary of Hindutva icon Deen Dayal Upadhyaya on February 11, 2022.
Although Nadda announced that donations were meant to strengthen his party and its ‘mass movement’, the donors were reportedly asked to contribute to government schemes in the event they did not want to contribute to BJP’s ‘party fund’.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also endorsed the drive on the same day taking to his X handle where he reportedly urged people to donate, adding that ‘Your support will enthuse millions of Karyakartas (party workers) who are selflessly devoted to the cause of nation building’.
Aravindakshan contributed Rs 100 to each of these government schemes through the platforms thus receiving online receipts in email from the BJP’s central office.
‘As the names of Union Government schemes were displayed in the payment links (of the website) and NaMo App donation module, I reasonably believed that donations were for those schemes, which induced me and other citizens to donate,’ Aravindakshan was quoted as saying.
Later Aravindakshan in January and February 2022 sent multiple RTI queries to ministries responsible for the schemes and received responses that the party had not been given any permission or authorization to collect funds for the schemes.
Following which, Aravindashan sought if any NGO or individual were given permission to raise funds for these government schemes and whether the NaMo app and narendramodi.in were given any special permission to collect funds.
Following his RTI query to the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti’s Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin), the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) made it clear that ‘There is no provision in SBM(G) Phase-II guidelines regarding raising of funds by NGO or individual for Swachh Bharat projects.’
A similar response also came from the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development with CPIO Rachana Bolimera categorically stating that ‘There is no provision to give special permission to raise funds through the NaMo App for the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme’.
Later, Aravindakshan asked the BJP president J.P. Nadda in writing to say the total corpus collected during the donation drive. Alongside he asked whether the funds were handed over to the union government. It is reported that he did not receive any response from the BJP leadership.
The senior journalist reportedly alleged that the BJP appeared to be guilty of offences including ‘cheating and criminal breach of trust, criminal conspiracy’ among others.