Urban Mirror Correspondent
New Delhi: The sale of controversial electoral bonds has shot up exorbitantly during on-going Lok Sabha elections in the country. The State Bank of India-nodal agency for sale of bonds- said in response to RTI application that bonds worth Rs 3,622 crore were sold during March and April 2019. The total sale of bonds was 1,056.78 crore in 2018. According to information maximum sale was recorded in Mumbai. The banks said the sale in March was Rs 1,365.69 crore in March which jumped up to 2,256.37 (65.21%) in April. Union finance minister Arun Jaitley had introduced the electoral bonds as a means of donation to political parties in his budget speech in 2017. According to SBI, in April, the most electoral bonds were sold in Mumbai at ₹694 crore, followed by ₹417.31 crore in Kolkata, ₹408.62 crore in New Delhi and ₹338.07 crore in Hyderabad.
The introduction of the bonds had generated a controversy and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) had moved the Supreme Court challenging its validity. In April the court had issued directives to all political parties to submit details of the bonds to the election commission. The commission has already opposed the bonds because of its secrecy clause.
Former Secretary Government of India Vijay Shankar Pandey, who is national president of Lok Gathbandhan Party, said that people have all the right to know the source of electoral bonds to the political parties. Mr Pandey said the Supreme Court had rightly directed the political parties, which are beneficiaries of the bond, to provide the details to the election commission. He said that permission of foreign funding to political parties through these bonds could raise spectre of foreign influence on India’s politics and policies. He said NDA government’s decision is fraught with serious consequences and the Supreme Court should impose ban on the bonds. The spokesman said the circulation of black money has completely vitiated the election process.
According to information through several trust like Prudent Electoral Trust, Jankalyan Electoral Trust, Janshakti Electoral Trust, AB General Electoral Trust and others the BJP, Congress and some other regional parties have been beneficiaries of huge funding. The BJP succeeded in cornering 86% of total funding during 2017-18. The Prudent Electoral Trust was the biggest contributor having disbursed a total amount of Rs 169.3 crore among BJP, Congress and Biju Janata Dal last year.
