The Hindu : Congress withdraws controversial coupons

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 16, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

Congress withdraws controversial coupons

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, FEB. 15. The Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) has withdrawn from circulation the coupons in the form of currency notes in the denomination of Rs. 5 it printed in lakhs to be distributed among those making donations to the party fund.

This follows the criticism that it was an attempt at counterfeiting the legal tender of the nation.

On Saturday, the BJP State unit spokesman, S. Suresh Kumar, accused the ruling party in the State of distributing fake currency notes among the people. Mr. Kumar urged the Reserve Bank of India and the Union Government to take action against the leaders of the State Congress unit who were responsible for it.

`It was a mistake'

The KPCC President, B. Janardhana Poojary, announced the decision to withdraw the coupons, and said the party had taken the decision bowing to criticisms in the press.

However, he maintained that the party was not responding to the BJP attack, and said the coupons had been withdrawn even before the latter raked up the uncalled for matter.

The former Union Minister of State for Finance agreed that the Congress had committed a mistake by printing such coupons. He would find out who was responsible.

But Mr. Poojary said that the BJP criticism was farfetched. Those in the Congress had no criminal intent in getting coupons resembling to some extent the currency notes. It was no more than a token acknowledging receipt of money.

He pointed out that one side of the coupons was blank, and not even a child would mistake it for a note. He saw no merit in the BJP criticism that the picture of the Congress President, Sonia Gandhi, had been printed along with that of Mahatma Gandhi.

The State unit of the Congress had got a vanload of the coupons printed to be distributed among those making small contributions to the party during the fund collection drives undertaken by Mr. Poojary and other leaders.

Party sources said that the decision to print such coupons was not that of any individual leader but that of some of them.

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Karnataka