When the Election commission of India finally published on its website the details of the electoral bond data it
received from the State Bank of India, being whip-lashed by the Supreme court to do so, the reac-tions were predictable. all political parties, whohad benefitted from the bonds, had rehearsed their lines. Not many have covered themselveswith glory after the court began examining thesaga of electoral bonds -- an instrument devisedby the late, too-clever-by-half, Fm arun Jaitleyto corner election funds for the Bharatiya JanataParty in the name of transparency.
Underlying the reactions, however, was the fear about how the fallout of the disclosures would play out in the upcoming battle of the hustings, if the quid pro quos for the donations were established. There was corporate unease, asthe disclosures made donor entities vulnerable topolitical reprisals. however, the issue being over-looked is the dis-service that donor companies did to shareholders by keeping them in the dark about the large sums of money they were hand-ing out.
as for politicians, the less said the better.Every major political party is on the list. This implies that the confidentiality of the donor and recipient that the electoral bond scheme ensured was used to the hilt by the political parties. The communist parties are a notable exception. They do not figure in the list of ben-eficiaries. In any case, the communists have lit-tle presence except in Kerala.
The data showed that the BJP – which has cashed in bonds worth R 6,060 crore during 12april 2019 to 24 January 2024 – benefited mostfrom the controversial scheme. as a nationalparty, the congress came in a distant third with R 1,422 crore, behind Trinamool congress thath as cashed in bonds worth R 1,609 crore. This isa sign of the GoP ’s falling fortunes. as for the Trinamool, its aggressive leadership, as well asits strong-arm tactics in West Bengal, appears to have earned it the respect of some donor fatcats. among other regional players, the Bharatrashtra Samithi (BrS: with R 1,214 crore), the Biju Janata Dal (with R 775 crore) and the DmK ( R 639crore) have netted significant donations.
as for companies that made the most dona-tions, Future Gaming & hotel Services ( R 1,368crore), owned by lottery king Santiago martin,tops the list, followed by megha Engineering &Infrastructure ( R 966 crore), Qwik Supply chain
( R 410 crore), Vedanta ( R 400 crore), haldia Energy( R 377 crore) and the Bharti airtel Group ( R 247crore). None of the known adani or ambani public companies figure in the list of donors.There is of course a buzz about shell companies being deployed to funnel donations to partiesvia bonds.
Upon closer examination of the data fromthe EcI, it’s revealed that a substantial numberof the top 20 purchasers of electoral bonds havealso made significant contributions in the past tothe richest Bharti-backed the Prudent ElectoralTrust. This trust has donated a staggering 76 percent of its contributions to the BJP from 2014-23.
Electoral trusts, allowed in 2013 by the erst-while congress-led UPa, served as a major con-duit for corporate donations to political parties,acting as a ‘safe buffer’ between the political par-ties and donors. however, the introduction of electoral bonds marked a departure from this model, allowing for anonymous donations, a fac-tor cited by the Supreme court in its decision tostrike down the scheme as ‘unconstitutional ’, asit violates the individual ’s right and freedom toinformation.
Supporters of the BJP have argued there isnothing wrong with the party receiving money proportional to its seat share in Parliament. Thisis a weak argument. For one, in countries where political parties receive state funding, their shareis based on the number of votes cast in their favour – the model in Germany – or a combina-tion of both votes and seats won in Parliament– as is the case of France. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the BJP won about 38 per cent of the vote share, significantly lower than its seat share.Secondly, India has a federal set-up, with govern-ments at both the centre and in the states. The proportionality claim falls apart, when you takestate assemblies into account.
The modi government has been accused of misusing institutions and agencies to fix polit-ical rivals and serving its interests. The trendhas now been extended to the banking sec-tor with SBI dancing to the government ’s tuneby withholding the data until it was scolded by the top court and its chairman warned of contempt of court. What a fall for India ’slargest bank!
One wonders whether the brouhaha over elec-toral bonds, which dented the BJP ’s reputation,will persist after the election and a new systemof clean political funding is finally put in place