Election Commission uploads electoral bonds data on website
In a significant step toward transparency in political funding, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has made public the data on electoral bonds provided by the State Bank of India. The information was uploaded on Thursday, one day ahead of the Supreme Court's deadline. The disclosed data includes details about bond purchases by both companies and individuals since April 12, 2019.
This comes after reprimand from the Supreme Court
Notably, the Supreme Court of India played a crucial role in this disclosure, having previously criticized the State Bank of India for not complying with its order to hand over the data by March 6. The bank had sought an extension until June 2024, which was rejected by the court. The apex court then directed SBI to provide all electoral bonds details to the ECI by March 12.
Details of the electoral bonds data
Subsequently, the SBI provided two sets of data to the ECI. The first set includes details about the purchaser, date, and denomination of each electoral bond. The second list contains information about the political party, date, and denomination of bonds encashed. However, there is no way to correlate these lists to determine which company donated to which party.
Donors and recipients
According to Hindustan Times, some of the purchasers of electoral bonds are Apollo Tyres, Lakshmi Mittal, Edelweiss, PVR, Keventer, Sula Wine, Welspun, and Sun Pharma. Notably absent from the records are Adani Group and Reliance Industries, two prominent business conglomerates. Meanwhile, recipients of funds through electoral bonds include BJP, Congress, AIADMK, BRS, Shiv Sena, TDP, YSR Congress, DMK, JDS, NCP, Trinamool Congress, JDU, RJD, AAP, and SP.
ECI says it believes in transparency
"It may be recalled that in the said matter ECI has consistently and categorically weighed in favor of disclosure and transparency, a position reflected in the proceedings of the Hon'ble Supreme Court and noted in the order also," ECI said as it published the data on the site.
Know about electoral bonds scheme
Coming to electoral bonds, they authorize anonymous Indian citizens or corporations to donate money to political parties. These bonds can be purchased at approved SBI offices in multiples of Rs. 1,000, Rs. 10,000, Rs. 1 lakh, Rs. 10 lakh, and Rs. 1 crore. The donor can hand these bonds to a party or parties and can be cashed in within 15 days. The scheme ensured that the contributor's identity remained anonymous.
