Debunking a Myth: Only 17 Political Parties Of 105 In EC List Got Electoral Bonds.
NB: Our autonomous institutions and elected authorities are blatantly liars. Maybe the Headquarters of Patriotism stationed in Nagpur can tell us why. When secret societies take over the reins of power, they conspire in broad daylight. DS
The Election Commission’s sealed-cover submissions in 2020 to the Supreme Court - which has not heard the case in two years - on electoral bonds named 105 political parties, creating an impression that a large number of parties received donations... But only 19 parties in India received donations through bonds; 17 of these are on the EC list, according to interviews with 54 political parties and a review of audit data and letters they submitted to the Commission. The BJP received 68% or Rs 4,216 crore of these funds.
Investigative reports published in 2019 by The Collective showed how the union government ignored objections to the bonds from the Reserve Bank of India, lied in Parliament about the EC’s comments, broke the law by allowing an illegal “special” window to encash bonds before the Karnataka state assembly elections and made the SBI accept expired bonds. The SBI had been caught asking the finance ministry for permission to respond to RTI queries related to electoral bonds despite being an independent public authority under the RTI Act, 2005.
The bank lied in its RTI responses on bonds. It said that it does not have data on how many bonds of each denomination were sold in 2018 and 2019, a claim that was refuted by a clutch of official records that showed that it not only had the information stored in that format but would regularly send the data to the finance ministry. Recently, the SBI in its reply to RTI queries filed by retired commodore Lokesh Batra said that only 23 of the list of 105 parties submitted by the EC to the Supreme Court were eligible to receive electoral bonds. The bank, however, refused to reveal the names of the 23 parties citing sections of the RTI Act, which exempt the disclosure of information stored under a fiduciary relationship and those that violate privacy. But these clauses can be invoked only if the public authority concludes that no public interest will be served by disclosing the information...
The bank lied in its RTI responses on bonds. It said that it does not have data on how many bonds of each denomination were sold in 2018 and 2019, a claim that was refuted by a clutch of official records that showed that it not only had the information stored in that format but would regularly send the data to the finance ministry. Recently, the SBI in its reply to RTI queries filed by retired commodore Lokesh Batra said that only 23 of the list of 105 parties submitted by the EC to the Supreme Court were eligible to receive electoral bonds. The bank, however, refused to reveal the names of the 23 parties citing sections of the RTI Act, which exempt the disclosure of information stored under a fiduciary relationship and those that violate privacy. But these clauses can be invoked only if the public authority concludes that no public interest will be served by disclosing the information...
Debunking a Myth: Only 17 Political Parties Of 105 In EC List Got Electoral Bonds
New Delhi: Secretive political funding by companies and individuals through electoral bonds reached no more than 19 political parties of over 2,800 across India, with India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alone raising 68% of the Rs 6,201 crore received in three years, reveals a series of interviews and analysis of annual audit reports by The Reporters’ Collective. The findings run contrary to the widely held belief (here and here) that electoral bonds were encashed by 105 political parties and the BJP’s claim that bonds are an efficient way to allow, in the BJP’s words, “donation to any political party of donors’ choice”.
In 2017 and 2018, petitions were filed (here and here) in the Supreme Court challenging the legality of electoral bonds through which corporate companies and individuals anonymously donated unknown amounts to political parties, with no limits. The Supreme Court on 12 April 2019 asked the Election Commission (EC) to find out and provide information on which parties received electoral bonds worth how much.
The Supreme Court ordered that the information be given in a sealed envelope, a practice brought into vogue by former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, so that no one but the judges could review the information. The EC wrote to political parties asking them to answer the court’s question. Of the over 2,800 political parties registered with the EC, 105 responded, though some questioned the Commission’s logic of seeking reports from all, irrespective of whether they received the bonds or not.
The EC submitted the responses in a ‘sealed cover’ to the apex court in February 2020. The list included seven national parties, three state units of national parties, 20 state parties, 70 registered unrecognised parties—those without a fixed election symbol but eligible to contest elections—and five unidentified entities. Two years have passed since the apex court last heard the case despite the repeated reminders from the petitioners. The court has not yet opened the sealed envelopes.
Only 17 Parties Got Donations Through Bonds: The Reporters’ Collective has now ferreted out the information in the sealed envelopes by interviewing the heads of 54 of 70 registered unrecognised parties that replied to the Commission, reviewing the letters the parties sent and crunching data from the annual audit report filings of political parties.
Together, these revealed that only 17 political parties of the 105 named in the EC’s sealed envelope got funds through electoral bonds....
By Shreegireesh Jalihal, Poonam Agarwal & Somesh Jha
New Delhi: Secretive political funding by companies and individuals through electoral bonds reached no more than 19 political parties of over 2,800 across India, with India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alone raising 68% of the Rs 6,201 crore received in three years, reveals a series of interviews and analysis of annual audit reports by The Reporters’ Collective. The findings run contrary to the widely held belief (here and here) that electoral bonds were encashed by 105 political parties and the BJP’s claim that bonds are an efficient way to allow, in the BJP’s words, “donation to any political party of donors’ choice”.
In 2017 and 2018, petitions were filed (here and here) in the Supreme Court challenging the legality of electoral bonds through which corporate companies and individuals anonymously donated unknown amounts to political parties, with no limits. The Supreme Court on 12 April 2019 asked the Election Commission (EC) to find out and provide information on which parties received electoral bonds worth how much.
The Supreme Court ordered that the information be given in a sealed envelope, a practice brought into vogue by former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, so that no one but the judges could review the information. The EC wrote to political parties asking them to answer the court’s question. Of the over 2,800 political parties registered with the EC, 105 responded, though some questioned the Commission’s logic of seeking reports from all, irrespective of whether they received the bonds or not.
The EC submitted the responses in a ‘sealed cover’ to the apex court in February 2020. The list included seven national parties, three state units of national parties, 20 state parties, 70 registered unrecognised parties—those without a fixed election symbol but eligible to contest elections—and five unidentified entities. Two years have passed since the apex court last heard the case despite the repeated reminders from the petitioners. The court has not yet opened the sealed envelopes.
Only 17 Parties Got Donations Through Bonds: The Reporters’ Collective has now ferreted out the information in the sealed envelopes by interviewing the heads of 54 of 70 registered unrecognised parties that replied to the Commission, reviewing the letters the parties sent and crunching data from the annual audit report filings of political parties.
Together, these revealed that only 17 political parties of the 105 named in the EC’s sealed envelope got funds through electoral bonds....
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