Ready for probe; demands Cong, BJP funding also be probed: AAP

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday said it is ready for a government probe into its funding, but demanded that Congress and BJP also submit themselves to the same scrutiny.

“We welcome the government’s order into our funding. We demand that the government also investigate into the funding of Congress and BJP,” AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal told PTI.

AAP has collected around Rs. 19 crore till November 8 as donations from 63,000 people, including a host of NRIs.

Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said that the inquiry has been ordered against AAP on receiving complaints regarding alleged foreign funding for it.

“Complaints have come to me. We are probing the matter…from where the funds are coming, from which country, what is the source etc. We are trying to find out all these,” he told reporters here.

The Home Minister, however, said such a probe takes time and indicated that the outcome of the investigation may not come before the Delhi assembly elections scheduled to be held on December 4.

Mr. Kejriwal demanded that “the probe report should be out within 48 hours after the probe ends.”

AAP, while raising doubt over “swiftness” shown by the government for probe, said “in past 65 years, has Congress ever demanded probe into BJP’s funding?”

The party leaders also said the timing of the demand for probe indicates that Congress and BJP were “hand-in-glove”.

“BJP leader Arun Jaitley had raised the issue of AAP receiving funds from overseas. At the same time, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit is also demanding probe into our funding. It seems that Congress and BJP are jointly making a strategy on how to attack AAP,” a party leader said.

Ms. Dikshit had on Sunday questioned the source of funding of AAP, whose main election plank is to check corruption and which has been relentlessly attacking the Congress Chief Minister and her government on the issue.