SC Scraps Electoral Bonds Scheme, but Only After Netas Pocketed Rs 16,000 Crores

Yeh Jo India Hai Na, yahan der hai, andher nahi.

Unconstitutional. Arbitrary. Opaque.

Using these tough words, the Supreme Court of India scrapped the electoral bonds scheme on 15 February 2023.

For the team at The Quint, it’s a ‘We Told You So’ moment. Way back in April 2018, within a month of the first tranche of electoral bonds being issued, an investigation conducted by our reporter Poonam Agarwal, showed how every electoral bond carried a unique hidden alphanumeric number, that was visible only under ultraviolet light.

Simply put, this meant the Modi government could track the identity of every donor.

How? Because the State Bank of India (SBI), the only bank allowed to issue the bonds, was obliged to share donor names with enforcement agencies on demand, who in turn, report to the government. Also, in recent years, the disproportionate manner in which political opponents of the government have been pursued by enforcement agencies has given credibility to the allegation that they may be working in tandem with their political bosses.

The Quint’s story took down then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s claim that the scheme would guarantee donor anonymity, allowing donors to choose electoral bonds over cash donations, thereby reducing ‘black money’ in elections. However, we showed that the hidden numbers allowed the government to see who was donating to their political opponents. Little wonder that the lion’s share of donations went to the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party). The Supreme Court too, has junked the government’s original claim of curbing black money.

Opacity of Electoral Bonds Violates Principle of Free and Fair Elections

However, the equally, if not more, fundamental problem was that electoral bonds were opaque to the public. While the government could track every political donor, we, the people, had no idea who was donating money, nor how much, nor to which party. We did not know if back-door deals were struck between parties and donors. All of this was clearly undemocratic and was finally called out by the Supreme Court as well.

Chief Justice DY Chandrachud led a five-judge bench that has categorically said that removing limits on corporate donations and at the same time keeping them opaque, was ‘unconstitutional’. Why?

Because it gave unknown corporate entities and business interests ‘disproportionate influence’ over ‘the electoral process’. In line with this view, the Supreme Court has also declared invalid all legal amendments that had allowed anonymous, undisclosed, and limitless company donations.

The top court also very rightly said that such limitless donations from unknown business interests were ‘violative of the principle of free and fair elections’ and democracy’s basic ‘value of one person one vote’.

And so, pushing hard for a return to full transparency in political funding, the Supreme Court has instructed the State Bank of India to share the names of all political donors under the electoral bonds scheme since it launched, with the Election Commission of India (ECI), along with the date of purchase, the amount purchased, and the name of the beneficiary party in each case. It has also ordered the ECI to make this information public by 13 March 2024.

Rs 16,000 Crores, a Majority of Which Flowed to the BJP

Surely, there is much to be appreciated about this Supreme Court verdict, especially as it has come before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. But at the risk of putting a dampener on the mood, we must also remember that petitions against the electoral bonds were filed in 2017, very shortly after the scheme was announced. And all the objections that the Supreme Court has now accepted as valid, were mentioned and articulated very clearly in those multiple petitions.

In 2019 the Supreme Court even refused to stay the scheme, calling it a ‘weighty matter’ that needed time for deliberation. But then, the top court pushed the tareekh by a full five years. And what did that cost us all?

Rs 16,000 Crores.

That’s the amount of money that political parties across the spectrum have pocketed under the secretive electoral bonds scheme since 2018, while petitions languished in the Supreme Court. Let’s also understand that over 50 per cent of this money has gone to the BJP.

Party-wise figures available till the end of the financial year 2022-23 show that of the Rs 12,000 crores coming in via the scheme since its inception, over Rs 6,500 crores went to the BJP, which is over 55 per cent of the total amount. The Congress and the Trinamool Congress trail way behind at around Rs 1,000 crores each. Other parties got a lot less.

That the ruling party would garner a slightly higher proportion of donations is understandable, but these figures are worryingly lopsided. In a country where the role of money power in elections is well known, such disproportionately high funding flowing to a particular party, thanks to a political donation scheme that is totally opaque to the public, gives that political party a massive advantage. Surely not a level, democratic playing field.

And the BJP has enjoyed that advantage in every election since March 2018. We, the people, can only wish that the Supreme Court had ruled on the matter earlier.

[Editor’s Note: The Quint’s former team member Poonam Agarwal’s relentless coverage of the Electoral Bonds scheme – including her story that showed the government’s claim of donor anonymity to be untrue – won her a Ramnath Goenka Award in 2020 in the ‘Investigative Reporting‘ category. Over the years we have brought you several such stories. Do support The Quint’s fearless and independent journalism. Become a member now, to support us in our pursuit of the truth.]