Thursday, May 16

Here’s What Amit Shah Said About The Electoral Bond Controversy

Edited by Fazal Rahman Chembulangad
amit shahHere's What Amit Shah Said About The Electoral Bond Controversy

Union Home Minister Amit Shah yesterday reacted for the first time after the electoral bond information was published on the Election Commission website on March 14. The Home Minister claimed that the electoral bonds were introduced to eradicate black money from the political funding and the scheme does not involve black money. He was speaking at the India Today conclave.

Amit Shah also said that the BJP believed the introduction of electoral bonds brought transparency in political funding, adding that he fears the black money would return as the scheme has been struck down. However, he did not make any comment on the Supreme Court verdict, stating that he respects the order.

The Supreme Court last month scrapped the scheme calling it non-transparent and unconstitutional. The election commission on Thursday published the electoral bond data received from the SBI following the Supreme Court admonition, triggering discussions on political funding and its intricacies. The BJP had topped the beneficiaries list of the scheme with more than fifty per cent of the total donations received by the saffron party through electoral bond.

Mr Shah during the conclave attacked the opposition parties for criticising the BJP for the money it got through the scheme and said the amount the opposition parties received was disproportionate to their number of seats in the Lok Sabha, noting that the Trinamool Congress received Rs 1,600 crore and Congress received Rs 1,400 crore.

Reacting To Mr Amit Shah’s claims, Saket Gokhale, the Rajya Sabha MP and Trinamool Congress leader in a post on X alleged that Prime Minister Modi and BJP have done the largest scam of independent India through electoral bonds. “Nowhere in the civilized world has any govt extorted money so openly using agencies.”

Noting Mr Shah’s argument of the number of MPs and the amount of electoral bond, the TMC leader asked if BJP only contest on the seats they won. “Was no money spent on elections on seats they lost, Why compare the amount with the number of elected MPs then?” the TCL MP contended. Mr Gokhale then pointed out that the money is spent on every seat that is contested and not just on the winners, noting that it applies to state elections too.

“Truth is BJP got thousands of crores more than other parties because of 2 simple reasons. Quid pro quo – give us electoral bonds and we will give your company plum contracts & tenders. Send the CBI & ED to extort money from companies. When the companies give crores in electoral bonds, cases magically are frozen.” the TMC leader wrote, alleging that the Prime Minister and BJP kept people fighting over religion while they minted crores for themselves over 10 years.

Before the Supreme Court verdict on the electoral bonds, there were reports regarding the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids on companies to allegedly make them donate to the saffron party. An investigation carried out by the NewsLaundry and the Newsminute had reported that the news portals found at least 30 firms donating to the BJP after the raid by ED and IT.

With the information became public, the opposition alleged the BJP of whitening black money for its political funding. Congress leader and Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi said that the scheme was the biggest extortion racket and corruption scandal. In a post on social media platform X, Congress leader and Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah alleged that the BJP collected bribes from corny industrialists, tax evaders and criminals. He wrote that Prime Minister Modi found a way to convert all of the black money into white using electoral bonds, by permitting industrialists to plunder India’s resources in return for donations.

However, the Home Minister while talking at the conclave, further said that there is a perception that the BJP benefitted from the electoral bond because it is the ruling party. Taking a dig at Rahul Gandhi, the Home Minister said that when the donations were made through cash, Congress would deposit Rs 100 in the party and keep Rs 1000 at home.