As India gears up for upcoming general elections, the Supreme Court passed a landmark
judgment on electoral bonds. While some experts have called it the biggest-ever political
donation scam, the Indian government has called it an instrument to curb black money
circulation. But what are electoral bonds?
Introduction of Electoral Bonds
Electoral Bonds were introduced in 2017 by the then Finance Minister of India to bring transparency
to political party donations. The corporates purchase these bonds in a multiple of 1,000,10,000,
1,00,000, 10,00,000, and 1,00,00,0000. The corporations purchase these bonds and hand them
over to political parties who can encash these bonds and the money gets deposited to the party’s
accounts. It was believed that these bonds would curb cash donations and promote
transparency.
Problem with the bond
The major issue with bonds is that there is no way to link the purchase of bond and the parties
to which they are donated. The court believed that the provisions of these bonds violated the Right to
Information under the constitution of India. Another problem with these bonds was that there was no
limit to the amount corporates could donate leading to unfair elections. The critics also believed
that they could be used a means of extortion by the sitting government. These electoral bonds
can be a mode of security money to prevent action by India’s investigation agency.
The Government’s Justification
The government has defended the criticism against these electoral bonds calling them baseless
and theories. The reason for anonymity is to prevent any bullying of corporations by the parties
of opposition who were not donated. It is important to note that the sitting BJP government is the
biggest receiver of these electoral bonds. The bonds received by them were more than the following
7 parties on the list.
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Conclusion
India is on the verge of their Lok Sabha elections. As the Supreme Court twisted the hands of
election commission to remove anonymity around the electorate bonds, it would be interesting
to see how it affects the decision of elections.
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