The electoral bonds were introduced with the Finance Bill (2017). On January 29, 2018 the Narendra Modi-led NDA government notified the Electoral Bond Scheme 2018. The bonds will be issued in multiples of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 100,000 and Rs 1 crore (the range of a bond is between Rs 1,000 to Rs 1 crore). These will be available at some branches of SBI. A donor with a KYC-compliant account can purchase the bonds and can then donate them to the party or individual of their choice. Now, the receiver can encash the bonds through the party’s verified account. The electoral bond will be valid only for fifteen days. The electoral bonds will not bear the name of the donor. Thus, the political party might not be aware of the donor’s identity.
Today, the Supreme Court rejected the State Bank of India (SBI)’s request for an extension of time until June 30 to disclose the information on the purchase and redemption of electoral bonds to the Electoral Commission of India (ECI) and asked it to furnish the details before the end of business hours on March 12. SBI is directed to disclose the details by the close of business hours of March 12, 2024.
A five-judge Constitution Bench presided by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, which went into the aspects of the electoral bonds scheme, said that the “submissions of SBI indicate that the information” which was directed to be disclosed “is readily available” with the bank and therefore there was no reason for further extension as sought for.
BJP is the most powerful and richest party in the present time. The political donation decreases the allocation income of the company. So, such payment without approval by the general meeting is illegal. Political parties get huge donations but there is no accountability. The corporate wants the political donation to be kept a secret. All these secret deals are hidden corruptions. In the recent past the RBI and EC had raised red flags pointing out the legality of the scheme. Still the government proceeded with the scheme and got the nod of the parliament in the form of a money bill which again is unlawful. The opposition did not object to such a scam because they were finding some benefits for themselves.
The beneficiary of 95% electoral bonds is the ruling party. Any scheme which provides undue advantage to one political party that too to the ruling party is corruption. The media houses are already in the hands of political and business mafias. A corporate who acts as the patrons of ruling party privilege won’t raise any objection on such issues. As media and opposition do not take up the issue in the public domain the people are mostly unaware of the murkiness of the electoral bonds. The electoral bonds have all the features required to transform it into a major scam or corruption scandal.
An electoral bond is like a promissory note that can be bought by any Indian citizen or company incorporated in India from select branches of State Bank of India. The citizen or corporate can then donate the same to any eligible political party of his/her choice. The bonds are similar to bank notes that are payable to the bearer on demand and are free of interest. An individual or party will be allowed to purchase these bonds digitally or through cheque.
SBI says that both of these sets of sealed covers are kept as they are, and that it did not try to track who donated to which party by opening the envelopes. In other words, these two sets of envelopes represent two ‘silos’ of information that have not been matched with each other. The Supreme Court, however, has asked SBI to do exactly that — come up with details of who donated to which party and how much.
