A graphic is going viral on social media platforms with users claiming that Serum Institute of India (SII) donated around Rs 52 crore to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) via electoral bonds.
What have users said?: An X (formerly Twitter) premium user shared the graphic with a caption that said, "BIG EXPOSE: SERUM INSTITUTE OF INDIA donated 52 Crore Rupees in a single day to the BJP as electoral bonds. Now you can understand why no other vaccine was allowed in India."
Are these claims true?: No, this viral graphic shows donations made via the Prudent Electoral Trust and not electoral bonds. Additionally, there were several other vaccines that were allowed in India during the COVID-19 pandemic.
How did we find that out?: We noticed that the graphic carried text that said, "Money which companies gave to Prudent Electoral Trust was disbursed to the BJP almost immediately." It was attributed to news agency Reuters.
Taking this as a hint, we performed a keyword search and came across a report published on Reuters that was headlined, "Obscure trust links India's top businesses with Modi's election war chest."
The report said that the Prudent Electoral Trust had managed to raise about $272 million since 2013. The trust has donated around 75 percent of that amount to the BJP.
It said that the trust does not disclose how donations are distributed. Reuters had used data available in the public domain, from 2018 to 2023, to track flow of the same.
ArcelorMittal Design, Engineering Centre Private Limited, ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India, and Bharti Airtel donated large sums of money to Prudent. The trust, in turn, issued the cheque for the respective amounts to the BJP.
The report further said that donations from SII, DLF Ltd, and Essar Group moved to the BJP soon after Prudent received them.
What are electoral trusts?: According to a report available on Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), electoral trusts are set up by companies with the objective to distribute contributions to the political parties.
The 'Electoral Trusts' scheme was introduced by the Congress-led government in 2013 and it specified the procedure and eligibility for registration of Electoral Trusts.
The trusts were required to distribute 95 percent of their total income to eligible political parties.
The trusts also maintain a list indicating the people it received contributions from, and to whom it was distributed.
This data is available on the website of Election Commission of India (ECI).
This is completely different from electoral bonds in a way, as the names of the donors in the latter are kept completely anonymous.
Data available on ECI: Team WebQoof accessed the data shared on the ECI website about the contributions received by Prudent Electoral Trust during the financial year 2022-23.
The data showed that SII had indeed donated Rs 50 crore and 25 lakhs to the trust in three instalments in August 2022.
A cheque of the same amount was issued to the BJP on 18 August 2022.
About the claims on vaccines: According to an answer given in the Lok Sabha in 2021, that Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) had granted permissions to several COVID-19 vaccines for restricted use in emergency situation.
The question enquired details about the approved COVID vaccines in India along with the chronological account of approval.
It can be seen that there were several vaccines that were available, other than the one manufactured by SII.
The list of vaccines available during COVID-19 pandemic.
(Source: Digital Sansad/Screenshot)
Conclusion: A graphic is being shared with a misleading claim that it shows the amount donated by SII to the BJP via electoral bonds.
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