Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday said the BJP welcomed the Supreme Court’s verdict refusing the transfer of funds collected under the PM CARES Fund to the National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF).
“PM CARES is a registered public trust made under Chairmanship of PM Narendra Modi for emergencies like COVID19 whereas PMNRF was made in 1948 by an oral observation of the then PM to serve the needs to refugees from,” Mr. Prasad said, explaining the differences between various funds, and added that PM CARES was subject to audits.
“Out of the funds collected under PM CARES, ₹2000 crores has been spent procuring 50,000 ventilators, ₹1000 crores for relief work for inter state migrant workers and ₹100 crores as a research grant for COVID19 vaccine candidates from India. It’s all there in the website as well,” he stated.
Facebook controversy
On the Facebook row, Mr. Prasad said people whose political base had “shrunk like anything” were seeking to dominate discourse on these platforms. He asserted that everybody, regardless of his ideology, had got the right to air his views on these platforms.
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“Rahul Gandhi believes that any organisation that does not work to his liking is acting under the pressure of the BJP and the RSS,” he said
It was for Facebook to decide what to do as far as the story in The Wall Street Journal was concerned, he noted.
Hundreds of pages of BJP supporters were also removed by Facebook, he pointed out. “If the platform is public, then every Indian regardless of his ideology and commitment has got the right to convey his view. It is a hard fact we need to know that people whose political base has shrunk like anything seek to dominate discourse on these platforms”, he said.
Mr. Gandhi’s comments during the Delhi Assembly polls that youth would hit Prime Minister Narendra Modi with sticks in six months if he didn’t address the issue of unemployment was a “text book case of instigation for violence”, he observed.
“Wasn't it a hate speech,” Mr. Prasad asked. He also referred to Congress president Sonia Gandhi's call for “aar par ki ladai” at a public meeting to protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in this regard.