New Delhi
CNN
 — 

India’s predominant opposition celebration, the Indian National Congress, mentioned Friday that its financial institution accounts had been frozen by federal tax authorities, simply weeks earlier than an anticipated nationwide election.

Authorities later quickly restored entry to the accounts, the celebration mentioned, however not earlier than the transfer drew widespread criticism from the Congress and its allies, who accused the federal government of conducting an assault on democracy.

Congress Treasurer Ajay Maken informed a information convention the accounts had been frozen after an investigation of the celebration’s earnings tax returns for the 2018-19 monetary 12 months. He added that the Income Tax Department had issued a fee demand for two.1 billion rupees ($25.3 million) in connection to the continuing probe.

“The Congress party’s bank accounts haven’t been frozen. It’s the democracy that has been frozen,” Maken mentioned. “Will there be only a one party system in this country?”

Later on Friday, an earnings tex tribunal granted the celebration short-term entry to its accounts forward of a listening to Wednesday, lawyer and Congress lawmaker Vivek Tankha confirmed to CNN.

CNN has reached out to India’s Income Tax Department and Finance Ministry, and a number of leaders throughout the Congress Party for additional remark.

On Friday, supporters of the Congress Party gathered in Delhi’s iconic Jantar Mantar space to protest the motion, as Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge referred to as on the judiciary to “save the multi-party system in this country and protect India’s Democracy.”

Allies of the Congress Party have repeatedly claimed democracy is being stifled in India, with Friday’s case the newest in a collection of investigations concentrating on distinguished opponents of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Former Congress Party chief Rahul Gandhi, the son of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, was final 12 months disqualified as a lawmaker, and handed a two-year jail sentence for defamation, in a ruling his supporters say was politically motivated. Gandhi was later reinstated as a lawmaker following an intervention from India’s Supreme Court.

Gandhi on Friday mentioned his celebration will “fight tooth and nail” to guard India’s democracy.

“We have never bowed down before dictatorship, nor will we ever bow down,” he wrote on X, previously Twitter.

The Congress Party, a as soon as formidable power in Indian politics, has been languishing within the polls since Modi rose to energy a decade in the past with the promise of revitalizing the world’s largest democracy.

The Congress Party tried to kind an alliance of opposition teams in a bid to unseat Modi’s BJP within the upcoming election. But that alliance is already beginning to see cracks emerge as help for the BJP surges, simply weeks earlier than lots of of tens of millions of Indians are anticipated to move to the polls.

Often referred to as the world’s largest experiment in democracy, the Indian election comes at a vital time for the nation, because it positive factors prominence on the world stage with Modi presenting himself as a statesman who’s cementing the South Asian nation as a contemporary superpower.

But tensions are operating excessive at dwelling, with minorities feeling sidelined beneath the BJP’s majoritarian Hindu nationalist insurance policies.

In its most up-to-date gauge of voter sentiment, the Congress Party misplaced three out of 4 regional votes in key state elections in December, giving a lift to Modi and his BJP.

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