Electoral Bonds Data - Opposition Puts BJP In The Dock

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has led from the front in attacking the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government, accusing them of a massive scam in the name of Electoral Bonds (EB). “This is possibly the world’s biggest corruption scam, the world's biggest extortion racket and it is run by the Prime Minister of India… This is a huge theft taking place in front of everybody’s eyes and it has been orchestrated by the Prime Minister of India,” Gandhi said.

He was speaking to the media at Thane, Maharashtra, during the final phases of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, soon after the details of the EBs were made public on the e rally in, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi deemed electoral bonds the biggest extortion racket in the world.

Gandhi said that “none of the Opposition parties have access to contracts at the national level. None of the opposition parties are controlling the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), putting pegasus on people's phones… We are seeing criminal extortion from corporate India”. He added that big corporations were being ‘extorted’ and alleged that electoral bonds were given before big contracts are awarded.

He accused the ruling party of weaponising national institutions such as the Election Commission of India (ECI), Directorate of Enforcement (ED), Income Tax department (IT) and CBI.

According to Gandhi these institutions “should think about this one day when the BJP government changes, then action will be taken and the action will be such that these things will not repeat again.”

On February 15, the Centre's EB scheme which had allowed anonymous political donations was deemed "unconstitutional" by the SC which also scrapped it. The SC had also ordered the State Bank of India (SBI) to make public the donors’ lists as well as the money spent by each on buying EBs by each and the name of the political parties that received the funds.

On March 14, the Election Commission of India (ECI) uploaded the electoral bonds data a day before the SC’s deadline. This soon escalated into a massive political storm with the Opposition putting the ruling BJP in the dock.

Soon hashtags such as #ElectoralBondScam began trending on social media. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, called this “corruption of the highest order” accusing the BJP of using “electoral bonds for quid pro quo, hafta vasooli, kickbacks, and money laundering, amounting to thousands of crores… Soon this Suit-Boot-Loot-Jhooth Sarkar will have nowhere to hide!”

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav called the EBs a way to facilitate ‘Black Money Tourism’. This he said was the BJP’s way to “turn black money white.”

All India Congress Committee (AICC) president Mallikarjun Kharge has also demanded a Supreme Court-monitored special investigation into the EB scheme. He asked that BJP’s accounts be frozen till the probe ends.

“Though Mr. Modi proclaims na khaunga, na khane dunga (alluding — will not take a bribe, will not allow others to do so). However, the Supreme Court has exposed how the BJP has made money out of electoral bonds. SBI data shows that BJP received more than 50% of the donations while the Congress secured a meagre 11%,” Kharge said on March 15.

Kharge claimed that, “The Income Tax department was instructed to do this (freeze account of Congress), and nearly ₹300 crore of party’s funds are frozen.” Kharge added that those who were once raided by ED and I-T departments “become clean once they join the BJP.”

He added that the ongoing saga was one of “decimating Democracy, by looting money through coercion!”

Rashtriya Janata Dal leader called out the “partial disclosures” of the total number of EBs sold. “The bank has given information about only 18,871 bonds! Why has the information about the remaining 3,346 bonds been hidden?” asked RJD leader Chitranjan Gagan.

Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury said this disclosure of data was “A victory for democracy & transparency” adding that preliminary observations show that more answers are needed as “more skeletons will tumble.”

As the opposition continued to fire data and ask tough questions, Union Home Minister Amit Shah reacted to the Supreme Court's verdict on electoral bonds. Shah, who was speaking at an India Today conclave, claimed that EBs were “an initiative to end the domination of black money in Indian politics”.

He also claimed that the BJP was not the major gainer of the EB scheme. “Out of the total ₹20,000 crore electoral bonds, the BJP has got approximately ₹6,000 crore. Where did the rest of the bonds go? TMC has got ₹1,600 crore, Congress got ₹1,400 crore, BRS got ₹1,200 crore, BJD got ₹750 crore and DMK got ₹639 crore,” Shah said.

He defended the EB scheme claiming that before it was implemented “Opposition parties used to take political donations in cash… out of a donation of ₹1,100, they used to deposit ₹100 in the name of the party and keep ₹1,000 in their own pockets.”

The Home Minister added: "We have got ₹6,000 crore despite having 303 MPs and the rest got ₹14,000 crore against 242 MPs. What is the hue and cry about? I can say that once the accounts are settled they will not be able to face you all.”

Soon, this narrative, with an added ‘comparison’ element of ‘EBs per MP’ and ‘EBs of BJP Vs Opposition put together’ was then shared by right wing handles which claimed “BJP got 6000 crore worth of electoral bonds whereas opposition got Rs 14000 crore of the remaining bonds. So who has more explaining to do ????”

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has now asked the State Bank of India (SBI) to respond to the “the non-disclosure of the unique alphanumeric numbers of individual electoral bonds to the Election Commission of India (ECI) for publication on its official website”.

Newspapers quoted Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, who is heading a five-judge Bench, asking, “In our judgment of February 15, we had directed disclosure specifically of all the details of the electoral bonds, including date of their purchase, the amount, names of purchasers, the political parties which redeemed the bonds, etc. But the bank has not disclosed the numbers of the bonds purchased and encashed. Why?”

The SC issued notice to the SBI and listed the case on March 19. Meanwhile, transparency activist Commodore Lokesh Batra continued to share the EB data stating that the SBI is “running out of excuses”.

According to a detailed report in The Hindu, “Many top donors were under ED and Income Tax department scanner”. These companies/ corporations “at some point of time in the past five years. In some cases, a chunk of the bonds were bought by these firms, in the days following such searches.”

It cited the example of The Future Gaming and Hotel Services PR reportedly “the largest donor to political parties via the electoral bond route, with a cumulative sum of ₹1,368 crore. In May 2023, the ED had carried out searches at the residence of Santiago Martin in Chennai, the well-known lottery magnate and the Managing Director of the company. The ED had also conducted searches at the business premises of the company in Coimbatore under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). A year earlier, on April 2, 2022, the ED had attached movable assets worth ₹410 crore under the PMLA in the case of lottery scam against the company and its subsidiaries”.

Five days later according to the news report, “on April 7, 2022, the company made a significant purchase of electoral bonds worth ₹100 crore, marking one of their largest transactions on a single date. Of the ₹1,368 crore worth bonds purchased by the company, 50% were done before the ED searches and 50% after the searches.”