We dare Centre to probe funding, says AAP

New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party on Wednesday held Prime Minister Narendra Modi responsible for “mounting” demonetisation woes and said his deadline of 50 days has elapsed. The party also dared the BJP-led Centre to probe the alleged discrepancies in its funding.

“On November 8, the PM had claimed that after 50 days, things will return to normalcy. He also said he will be responsible if things do not improve in 50 days,” AAP spokesperson Ashutosh said.

He accused that Mr Modi was extolling “non-existent virtues” of demonetisation and alleged that over 100 people lost their lives, while hundreds of thousands lost their livelihoods since the note ban.

“Farmers are still facing hardships, labourers have lost their jobs, small traders are suffering as their businesses have collapsed, over 100 people have lost their lives and many marriages were called off due to cash crunch. But despite all this, the PM has not uttered a word,” Mr Ashutosh said.

Accusing the PM of derailing the country’s economy, he said the PM should “apologise” to the nation for having “misled” the country.

“Are these small difficulties as the Prime Minister says? Modiji spoke about how demonetisation has curbed drug mafia, terrorism and counterfeit note makers. Will he resign if there is a terror attack tomorrow? He did not speak on Akhlaq’s lynching, Najeeb’s (Ahm-ed) missing and Rohith Vemula’s suicide. We believed that the BJP government is inherently anti-Dalit and anti-minorities.”

“But now, he does not say a single word of sympathy even when over 100 people have died due to his own decision,” he said.

Meanwhile, the AAP later in the day dared the BJP-led Centre to probe the alleged discrepancies in its funding, wondering what was holding it back despite having the investigative agencies at its disposal.

Days after admitting that “inadvertent errors” had crept in the list of donors the AAP submitted to the Income-Tax authorities, party’s Delhi convenor Dilip Pandey said not too much should be read into the filing of revised returns. The BJP had accused the AAP of accepting foreign funding from dubious sources even before the 2015 Delhi Assembly polls, but later their government in the Centre filed an affidavit in the court giving a clean chit to the Aam Aadmi Party, he said.

He also dismissed Yogendra Yadav-led Swaraj India, which has also been raising the issue, as a “non-entity”.

On disgruntled AAP MLA Devendra Sehrawat’s allegation that the AAP had received funding from shell companies, Mr Pandey said, “Anyone can flash a cheque with AAP’s name and level wild charges.”