Golden harvest for BJP: Chidambaram calls electoral bonds 'legalized bribery'
Veteran Congress leader P Chidambaram described electoral bonds as "legalized bribery" on Saturday and alleged that it will be a "golden harvest" for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after the fresh tranche opens. On Friday, the central government announced that the 28th tranche of the electoral bonds will officially open for sale on October 4 for a period of 10 days. In 2019, Chidambaram had also called electoral bonds the "biggest scam of the decade."
Chidambaram attacks BJP over electoral bonds
Taking to X (formerly Twitter), the senior grand old party leader stated, "The 28th tranche of Electoral Bonds will open on October 4. It will be a golden harvest for the BJP. Going by the past records, 90% of the so-called anonymous donations will go to the BJP." "The crony capitalists will open their cheque books to write out their 'tribute' to the lord and master in Delhi," Chidambaram further added.
Check out Chidambaram's post on X
Details on Centre's new notification on electoral bonds
A Finance Ministry statement issued on Friday stated that the State Bank of India (SBI) had been authorized to encash and issue electoral bonds through its 29 authorized branches. As per the news outlet Mint, the authorized branches of the SBI are in the cities of Srinagar, Kolkata, Gandhinagar, Lucknow, Dehradun, Bengaluru, Guwahati, Chennai, Shimla, Bhopal, Patna, Chandigarh, New Delhi, Mumbai, and Raipur. This comes right ahead of the assembly elections in Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, Telangana, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh.
What are electoral bonds?
An electoral bond is similar to a promissory note that can be purchased from specified SBI branches by any Indian citizen or company incorporated in India. They are a transparent and better alternative to cash donations made to political parties in India. Indian citizens can also buy electoral bonds on their own, individually, or jointly with others. They are available in Rs. 1,000, Rs. 10,000, Rs. 1,00,000, Rs. 10,00,000, and Rs. 1,00,00,000 denominations.
BJP received 3-times more donations than other political parties: Report
In July, the think tank Association for Democratic Reforms reported that over half of all donations received between 2016-17 and 2021-22 by political parties were through electoral bonds. Among them, the total donations received by the BJP were more than three times those of all other national parties combined. While the BJP received donations worth Rs. 10,122.03 crore, the Congress and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) finished close second and third with Rs. 1,547.43 crore and Rs. 823.30 crore funding, respectively.
