• Source:JND
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The Congress party is set to stage a nationwide protest today at the party’s state and district headquarters against a notice from the Income Tax department, asking it to pay a penalty of over Rs 1,800 crore. 

After receiving the IT notice, the Congress party on Friday announced that massive protests would be held in all constituencies led by the Lok Sabha candidates. In a letter addressed to Congress general secretary KC Venugopal, the party claimed that the ruling BJP is undermining Indian democracy by illegally freezing the grand old party's bank accounts during the general elections.

"As you are well aware, the systematic process to thwart Indian Democracy by the BJP proceeds at an alarming rate. An illegal attempt to freeze the bank accounts of the principal national opposition party - the Indian National Congress - last month in February has gone on for over a month on the eve of the national general election. Yesterday, we received fresh notices from the IT department to pay ₹1823.08 crores. Already the IT department has forcibly taken away ₹135 crores from our Bank account," the letter read. 

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In a letter, the grand old party said that the notice by the Income Tax department was a ‘naked attack’ on the principles of democracy. "Now in a patently illegal and undemocratic action, the Income Tax Department - has launched its next premeditated, diabolical campaign against the INC. Eight years of Income Tax returns of the INC have been reopened on baseless, manufactured grounds to levy patently illegal Income Tax Demand orders totalling thousands of crores of rupees. This is nothing but a blatant and naked attack on the very principles of democracy," it added.

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Meanwhile, Swarnim Chaturvedi, general secretary and spokesperson of the Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee, claimed that the BJP-led federal government is constantly undermining democracy and democratic systems in the country. He further emphasised that all office bearers and workers of the party will stage a protest across the state against the central agency’s notice. 

The Income Tax notice against the Congress came after the party’s bank accounts were frozen last month over an income tax demand of Rs 210 crore.