Companies That Skipped Donation To BJP Faced Actions: Report
Corporate funding and the government have always been a topic of debate across the world as it has several implications ranging from corruption, inclination and the creation of corporate government nexus. Companies often donate to political parties to secure their business interests. In India, the world’s largest democratic country, the topic has more significance and consequences than other countries.
An investigation carried out by the Newslaundry and The News Minutes on the corporate funding of the political parties using different channels and its impact on the Indian political scenario, explains the pattern of the money flow to the political parties, especially in recent years.
The media report says that a total of 30 companies despite donating Rs 335 crore to the BJP faced government agency’s actions and some companies donated more amount after the government action. A few other companies that did not donate to the party also faced search and agency actions, the report said. A distillery firm based in Madhya Pradesh donated to the BJP after it faced the agency action.
With the Supreme Court striking down the electoral bonds introduced by the BJP government in 2018 noting the possibility of a quid pro quo in corporate funding and raising the need for transparency, the Court directed the State Bank of India to stop issuing these bonds. Further, It has also asked the Election Commission to submit the funding details since 2019.
It has been reported that the party that received the highest funds is the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in the past few years. The party got the funds through both the “electoral bonds” and its predecessor “electoral trust”. Electoral trust was introduced by the UPA government in 2013 and though the system is not widely used now, the BJP has benefitted from electoral trust along with the electoral bond.
The BJP has received over Rs 1,893 crore in the past 10 years through various electoral trusts. Electoral trusts work in a manner where corporate companies accumulate their donations to a trust and then the trust distributes the total amount to various parties, remaining semi-autonomous.
Besides, the party received a total of Rs 1,300 crore in 2022 and 2023 through electoral bonds, which was seven times bigger than that of the Congress party. During this period, the BJP’s 61 per cent of the donations were made through the electoral bonds. The news portal citing the Association for Democratic Reforms reported that the BJP got Rs 719.7 crore out of the total Rs 850. 4 donated to the national parties in 2022 and 2023.
However, the news portals claimed that they would publish their second part with information regarding the aforementioned 30 companies and the details of the government”s actions against them.
