But what is that info in “ sealed cover “ ?

 

 

Context :

Supreme Court dismisses plea against sale of electoral bonds  /    HT   /  27 March 2021

Extract :

 

In April 2019, the Court introduced an interim “ safeguard ” by directing all political parties to submit details of receipts of the electoral bonds to the Election Commission in a sealed cover.

 

The Election Commission which supported the electoral bond policy in the top court said it has received sealed covers from various political parties (national, state, registered and unregistered) as per the April 12, 2019 order. The list of parties that submitted the covers were also furnished to the Court.

 

The bench held, “It is not correct to say that RBI and EC opposed the electoral bond scheme itself….RBI wanted to achieve the twin advantage of providing anonymity to the contributor and ensuring that consideration for transfers is through banking channels and not cash or other means ”

 

Bhushan further alleged that the bond could be purchased by a person using white money and later transferred to somebody in black.

 

The Court ruled out the scope of such a transaction as purchasers of bonds will have to comply with KYC norms and their identities are anyway known to the State Bank of India, which issues the bonds.

 

If a company makes a donation through electoral bonds, the Companies Act requires financial statements of registered companies to be filed with the Registrar of Companies.

 

Further, the scheme also mandates political parties to file audited statements of accounts each year with the Election Commission.

 

“Therefore, it is not as though the operations under the scheme are behind iron curtains incapable of being pierced…All that is required is a little more effort to cull out such information from both side (purchaser of bond and political party) and do some `match the following’,” added the bench. Clause 14 of the Electoral Bond Scheme introduced by way of amendments to the Finance Act and Representation of Peoples Act in January 2018 specifically prohibits trading of bonds. The Court cited this clause to allay Bhushan’s fears of subsequent transfer of bonds.

Welcoming the order, Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Nalin Kohli said: “Now that the honourable Supreme Court has decided in favour of the electoral bonds one hopes there will be closure to what was an unnecessary controversy on a good decision with regard to electoral funding.”

 

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, however, termed the bonds a “dubious money laundering operation”.

 

“SC must expose #ElectoralBonds for what they have become-:

1. A dubious money laundering operation to help one party.

2. A veiled mechanism to legitimize quid-pro-quo deals.

3. An untraceable funnel for black money payments.

 

If not now, then when?,” he tweeted.

 

ADR Founder Jagdeep Chhokar said,

Ø  “The judgment is disappointing. The interim arrangement on which the Court has relied is unworkable. 

Ø  The EC cannot know the donors of these bonds received by political parties.

Ø  Further, the Court has said that information about the donors can be known by making a little effort.

Ø  if this information can be found then why can’t it be made available in public domain. We hope this order does not impact our petition pending on the larger questions of law challenging these bonds.”

 

 

MY  TAKE  :

Ø  We ( the public ) have no idea as to what information have those political parties furnished to EC in those “ sealed covers “ . Was there any standard form or each party submitted what if felt like giving ?

 

Ø  EC has given to Supreme Court, a “ List of the parties “ which have delivered sealed covers ( – but not the details? ) . So, quite possibly even SC does not have any CLUE

 

 

Whatever the “ details “, only entities which KNOW , are :

Ø  Concerned Political Party( for its own donations )

Ø  Concerned SBI Branch ( for bonds purchased there – by all parties )

Ø  SBI Headquarter ( all the bonds purchased by all the parties during the year )

Ø  Election Commission

 

Dear Shri Ravishankar Prasadji,

I urge you to get the parliament to amend the law which makes it mandatory for EC to publish on its website, donation data of each political party in following manner ( - and display a mirror-image on the websites of SBI – Income Tax Department and concerned Political party ) :

Database of ELECTORAL BONDS received ( Period : 01 April 2020 – 31 March 2021 )

Submitted to EC by ( Name / details of Party ) :  XYX  - National / Regional ( Registration No / Date )

Srl No	Bond Number	Date of Purchase	Bond Amount ( Rs Cr )	SBI branch from where purchased	Digital Payment Method for purchase	Donor’s Bank Account No ( with Branch Name ) from which paid	Political Party’s Bank A/C no in which deposited ( with branch name )	Date bond deposited and balance in account after depositing ( Rs Cr )
1	34871	05 May 2020	26	Juhu - Mumbai	NEFT	SB 678	RBL – Andheri / SB 420	67 ( 07 May )
2			28					85
TOTAL			54

  

Dear Citizen :

Now if you are wondering “ WHY “ we are not allowed to know these details , read :

Ø  Electoral Bonds for Transparency ? ………………….[ 03 Jan 2018 ]

 

Extract :

 But, imagine the following scenario :

 

 

#   Mr  Antani of Alliance Industries , buys bonds worth Rs 5 crores from his

     company’s SBI bank account, after due KYC verification.

     He buys 2 bonds, one of Rs 3 crore and another of Rs 2 crore

 

 

    

#   Having used his Company’s bank account, this entry would have to appear

     in his Company’s year-end Balance Sheet / Annual Report ( a document in

     public domain ) – under heading “ Purchase of Electoral Bonds “ – which is

     visible to all

     

     

     

  

#  Mr Antani  meets, General Secretaries of  2 political parties and

     hands over those papers, IN PERSON (- not surprising , considering that the

    bond does not carry the donor’s name – and of course, you want to be

    remembered ! Does any donor send bond through India Post or a Courier ? )

 

 

#  So, each of those General Secretaries, know how much bond money his

    party got from Alliance Industry

 

    

 

     

#  But he has no idea of how much donation Alliance Industry gave to how

    many other parties – until he looks up that Balance Sheet !  Now he can

    guess , who got and how much from Alliance Industry ! And he will

    remember while taking decisions

        

    

 

 

#   Of course, the following will not know who gave how much donation to

     which political party :

     

 

     Ø     En-cashing Bank ( of the Political Party )

 

     Ø      Election Commission 

 

     Ø      Public

 

 

       As if this was not enough , the amended Income Tax Act reads :

 

 

      “  Any contributions received by way of electoral bond shall be excluded

         from reporting “

       

 

 

   Does anyone have any doubt that the whole idea behind introduction of

   Electoral Bonds is ,

   

 

 

    #  Not to introduce TRANSPARENCY , but to reinforce existing ANONYMITY

 

 

    #  To ensure that no relation ( Quid pro Quo ) can ever be established

         between a donor and a government largesse to that donor

         

 

 

    #  To ensure that neither the Income Tax department , nor the Election

         Commission ,nor any watchdog organization ( such as ADR ), nor the

         citizens can examine the records of political parties ( Who gave

          How much to Whom and spent Where ! )

        

 

 

    #  To ensure that cash donations of Rs 2000 or less , can continue un-

        abated, could the NDA government done anything different to bring about

        true TRANSPARENCY , to the entire issue of Political Funding ?

 

 

   

 

YES, if it had the courage to implement my following blog / email [ 06  July  2017 ] :

Ø      Transparency in Political Funding ?

 

I have however serious doubt that, even if NDA government shows such courage and introduces a bill in Lok Sabha as suggested by me in my 06 July 2017 e-mail, opposition parties will oppose it tooth and nail !

But we must not give up

It can still happen if a million high-profile citizen muster enough courage to forward this blog to Shri Modiji

With regards,

Hemen Parekh  /  hcp@RecruitGuru.com  /  06 July 2021