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
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
# But he has no idea of how much donation Alliance Industry gave to how
many
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
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
# 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
# To ensure that neither the Income Tax department , nor the Election
Commission ,nor any watchdog
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