Electoral Bonds — Unconstitutional Scheme that encouraged Money laundering in the name of Anonymity
Why many people have raised doubts with regards to Electoral Bonds
In February 2024, Supreme Court of India held that the Electoral bonds scheme was “unconstitutional,” struck it down, and ordered the publication of all data, including details that connect the donors with the recipient parties.
The data was released in several batches spanning over a week with the State Bank of India (SBI) first reluctant to share the data citing long procedure in matching the donors to the political parties, then after stern warning from the apex court released the data in full.
Electoral Bonds, first of all the name is all wrong.
It is not really a bond and it was really not for raising money for elections.
What is a Bond in Finance?
Bonds are debt instrument which can be issued by governments and corporations when they want to raise money.
By purchasing a bond, you’re giving the issuer of bond a loan, and they agree to pay you back the face value of the loan on a specific date, and to pay you periodic interest payments along the way, usually twice a year.
These things were terribly wrong with Electoral Bonds:
- Corporations don’t take part in the Electoral Voting process at all as they don’t have voting rights, so why would they donate in their right minds?
- There was nothing mentioned in the scheme which made sure that Political Parties use the donations only during Elections. People allege that it was a scheme made to “Enrich the Party”. (nearly ₹8,251.8 crores donated to a single party).
- It is a risk to Sovereignty of India because foreign companies & governments can give money to shell companies who donate and their names & amounts donated won’t be disclosed. It poses a significant risk to security and safety of this country because foreign powers like China and Russia can interfere with the electoral process.
- Increases the influx of black money into the system via Money Laundering which can be systematically turned white by donating to Political parties which again is a risk. It is a vicious cycle.
Difference between Congress and BJP Regimes ?
You might have heard this said by BJP workers, by national news channels and by BJP supporters a lot during elections campaigns that:
For 55 years the Congress looted the people of India.
Let me give you another figure,
For the last 70 years even when they had power — The Congress never once became the richest party in the world.
But,
BJP in the last 10 years has not only become the richest party in India but also around the world.
Now consider all the big national parties in USA, China, Russia, and UK.
BJP’s corporate donation spree is stronger than any party in the world. It has more money than all of them.
But why do corporations choose only BJP as their party for donations is also a valid question?
Doesn’t it make you wonder why would a Political party need all this money for? They are not surely spending everything on elections.
Some alleged that it is being used to buy media houses & news anchors in the country, for building their lavish offices, spreading right-wing propaganda by sponsoring movies that promote hate, their ideology & violence, toppling state governments & breaking parties, others say something bigger is at play!
In a country of 144 crore people out of which 80 crore poor people need to stand in line for 5 kg ration, Rs 20,000 crore (total amount of money donated via Electoral Bonds) sounds like a lot of money!
Who is Buying these Bonds — Is it extortion money?
The data from electoral bonds shows a money trail, that first government agencies like CBI and ED raided offices of companies on charges like tax fraud, money laundering etc.
Then a few days later the company deposits crores of Rupees as Corporate Donation via electoral bonds scheme and 5 to 10 days later the company’s name is cleared of any charges by CBI and ED.
In a few scenarios, Just after the company donates money via electoral bonds — They are given State and Union Government contracts worth thousand crores in infrastructure, public buses, construction, Medicine, etc.
- Companies like AstraZeneca and Serum Institute of India allegedly had given Rs 50 crores in corporate donations to the BJP. Their Covid-19 vaccine, COVIDSHIELD was passed during testing even when it had flaws. The company later admitted that the vaccine made by them can cause a rare side effect TTS, which causes blood clots and increases the chances of heart attack and brain hemorrhage.
- Megha Engineering Industries Limited (MEIL) which donated Rs 966 crores in total via Electoral bonds out of which Rs 519 crore went to BJP. They were handed contracts worth thousands of crores in construction, infrastructure and public electric buses (their subsidiary Olectra Greentech is a public company and makes electric bus in partnership with Chinese company BYD).
- A majority of such companies don’t even generate a profit & are loss making while some who do generate a profit have contributed 30–60 times their Annual Profit as donations. Meaning some people have smartly donated through such companies so as to hide their real names in-case the data does get out in public.
Major companies which allegedly got favors after donations include Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Ltd, Future Gaming and Hotel Services PR, Grasim Industries, Vedanta, IFB Agro Limited, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Bharti Airtel Limited, among multiple others.
Why didn’t the Government make the data public to maintain transparency?
Attorney General for India, R Venkataramani while presenting views of the ruling government on the matter, made a statement in the Supreme Court saying that:
Citizens Don’t Have Right To Know Source Of Political Parties’ Funds.
I mean what kind of statement is that!?
Corporations don’t vote, Common people do!
Citizens have every right to know from where political parties are getting their funding, when they are getting it and the amount being donated.
Biggest scam in the entire world?
It can be.
Some view it as the Biggest Extortion scheme in the entire world that was run by Government of India at a National Level by smartly bringing it in as part of the budget.
Here the whole Wikipedia commentary on the whole introduction of electoral bonds scheme in 2017:
The scheme was introduced in The Finance Bill, 2017 during the Union Budget 2017–18 by then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. They were classified as a Money Bill, and thus bypassed certain parliamentary scrutiny processes, in what was alleged to be a violation of Article 110 of Indian constitution.
Mr Jaitley also proposed to amend the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Act in order to facilitate the issuance of electoral bonds by banks for the purpose of political funding.
Why is National media silent?
What you find from the names of companies that have donated (which includes certain media giants as well),
Nearly 50% of money from electoral bonds donations went to the ruling party which is the BJP. Close to Rs 8,251.8 crores (amounting close to $1 billion) were donated to them.
The Congress, India’s main opposition party, got Rs 1,952 crores, less than a quarter of what the BJP got. The rest went to regional parties.
Yes, Congress got some money but what the opposition allege is the specific money trail from the released data:
- Agencies like CBI and ED raid company’s offices alleging tax fraud, then money is donated by the company via Bonds, and then charges against them are dropped.
- Second way, Donation is first made by Company as in case of MEIL — then thousand crores of Government contracts are handed over to them.
What is alleged is that these companies didn’t even donate with their ‘Free Will’ and that the money was extorted out of them.
Quid Pro Quo?
The aim is not to find who got the money or how much they got.
The goal is to identify why would any corporation in their right mind donates large sums of money without anything in return? — The Answer is quid pro quo — You do something for me, I do something for you
Aftermath of Published Data
No investigation has been carried out yet on the released data which makes you wonder, was this all a ploy to fool the general public and hide a massive National Scam?
A lot of these Companies are Public companies, what right do they have to go and donate shareholders money as Electoral donations without their explicit Permission?
Many people have reasons to believe that a much bigger scam lies hidden in PM Cares Fund!
That’s it folks!
References:
- Rise of shell companies due to Demonetization in India: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_corporation
- MEIL electoral bonds donations and quid pro quo: https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/megha-engineerings-biggest-donation-was-to-bjp-followed-by-brs-electoral-bond-data-12504651.html
- Loss making companies and those Companies which donated much more than their profits (Encouraged creation of shell companies and money laundering): https://indianexpress.com/elections/in-list-firms-that-spent-many-times-their-equity-on-poll-bonds-9216943/
- Mr. Kapil Sibal arguing against Electoral Bonds Scheme in Supreme Court of India:
Video 1:
Video 2:
