The Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court, under the able leadership of Chief Justice of India, Dr. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud has come out openly against the misuse of Electoral Bonds. Having declared them unconstitutional, it ordered the State Bank of India (SBI) to submit the list of donors and recipients of the bonds. It rejected the SBI plea for more than three months for submission of the list. It cracked the whip again, telling SBI that it is dutybound to submit the bond code numbers for verification.
The Supreme Court’s tough stance and strict orders have opened a can of worms, or more particularly unearthed a cesspool of corruption created by the ruling party BJP, undermining the democratic principles, transparency in financial matters and citizens’ right to know. The BJP appears to be at its wits’ end.
The nefarious game of getting huge donations under cover of secrecy is now fully exposed. The acceptance of money and showering undue financial favors on the donors strikes at the roots of democratic norms and encourages political corruption. The state of affairs is a sad commentary on corrupt practices of our political class, which does not have any regard for integrity and fairness in its hunger for power. The ruling BJP was brazenly showering unjustifiablefavors on the donors without any sense of responsibility and accountability. Big companies in mining, pharma, infrastructure, and construction top the list of donors, who benefited with contract approval of projects, tax concessions and loans.
It was brought to the notice of citizens that ED and IT were exploited against most of the donors. As a safeguard, the companies purchased bonds of huge amounts. This saved the companies from further action against them. This was the protection money they had to pay. Just take the case of Future Gaming, a company engaged in lottery business since 1959. It purchased bonds worth Rs.100 crore 5 days after ED attached its Rs.400 crore assets. This is an open case of accepting a bribe in the name of donation to a political party through electoral bonds. The top five bond purchasers are Future Gaming and Hotel Services (P) Ltd. (bonds worth Rs.1368 crore), Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd. (bonds worth Rs.966 crore), Qwik Supply Chain (P) Ltd. (bonds worth Rs.410 crore), India Energy Ltd. (bonds worth Rs.377 crore), and Vedanta Ltd. (bonds worth Rs.376 crore).
All these companies were either financially helped or ED/IT proceedings against them were withdrawn. Thus, from April 2019 to January 2024, this opaque, questionable game of bribery in the name of bond purchasing continued. It was stopped only when the Supreme Court cracked its whip and banned the fraudulent business by declaring electoral bonds illegal and unconstitutional.
By the time you read these lines, the SBI would have forwarded the code numbers of sold bonds and people would be in a position to learn which purchaser paid how much to which political party. Then people would be able to know how and in what shape the particular party or the government showered favors to the donors. Thereafter more skeletons would be dug out. As a result of these fresh revelations, the voters would be able to know the corrupt practices the parties indulged in.
India’s future is dependent on transparency, openness and integrity. Let’s hope that the proactive enthusiasm of the apex court will put an end to corrupt practices of our political parties and our system will be cleansed of bribery, dishonesty, injustice and favoritism.