Electoral Bonds under SC scrutiny on Sep 19
BJP obtained 68% donation, Congress just 11%
Of 105 eligible parties, only 19 benefited
With the Supreme Court listing the long-pending case against the government’s electoral bonds scheme for a hearing on September 19, donations to political parties may come under a close scrutiny.
The petitioners challenged the scheme saying the entire process is anonymous since political parties need not to show the source of the money. The government had contended that the money is unlikely to be “black” since it has to be given by cheque. The court, however, directed in 2019 that political parties must submit details to the Election Commission about electoral bonds. But the matter remained pending for a regular hearing as the SC found no time for almost three years. It was only on April 5 this year, former Chief Justice of India NV Ramana had agreed to hear the case after the matter was mentioned by lawyer Prashant Bhushan. But no date could be fixed.
An in-depth analysis of donations revealed 19 political parties received funds via electoral bonds through which anyone can anonymously donate money to political parties. As many as 105 parties submitted the data in a 'sealed cover' to the Election Commission in May 2019. Only 17 of the 19 parties were named in the Election Commission's list
receiving bonds 2017-18 and 2019-20. Two other parties were listed separately. These parties collectively received Rs 6,201 crore and a whopping 68 percent of this unaccounted money was donated to one party, the BJP.
The BJP had the lion's share with Rs 4,215.89 crore of the total electoral bonds worth Rs 6,201 crore – between 2017-18 and 2019-20. The Congress, trailing far behind the BJP, raised Rs 706.12 crore or 11.3 percent of all bonds en-cashed and rest by others.
