India’s electoral bonds scheme has been declared illegal, a rare win in court for those resisting authoritarianism. But many elections, including the last general election, have been fought on these unlawful funds. https://thewire.in/government/electoral-bonds-narendra-modi-rbi
Many will not know how diabolical the electoral bonds enterprise was, and it is for their benefit that this is being written.
The scheme was announced by the Narendra Modi government through the 2017 Union Budget. The bonds would be a way for political parties to receive money through anonymous donors. The donor would have to reveal their identity to the bank while making the bond purchase, but the identity would not be revealed on the bond itself. Political parties could accept the money without being required to reveal who gave it. Voters would therefore not know who was funding and influencing political parties.
It also undid that part of the Companies Act, under which corporates had to disclose details of their political donations in their annual statement of accounts. Now they were no longer required to do so. The corporates had earlier also been limited to donating a maximum of 7.5% of their average three-year net profits to political parties.
The Supreme Court has now held that the scheme unconstitutional, something that was obvious to anyone familiar with the most basic details of what the bonds were for. But this should also alert us to how weak our institutions are and how, when they mean well for the country, they can just be ignored.
by Aakar Patel
20/02/2024