Opposition Forced To Use Unaccounted Money; Electoral Bond A Bad Way Of Financing Elections, Says Former RBI Chief. (X-Raghuram Rajan @ArunSFan)

During a recent interview to The Red Mike, Dr Raghuram Rajan, former Governor of Reserve Bank of India, made an odd remark about Congress Rajya Sabha MP Dhiraj Prasad Sahu caught with unaccounted money, in which Income Tax officials recovered in a raid.

Rajan argues that the opposition parties are forced to operate with unaccounted money. The reason, he claims, is the unequal playing field that the electoral bond comes, in favor of the ruling party.

In the video posted on X by The Red Mike, senior journalist Sanket Upadhyay is seen asking questions to Rajan on several issues. When asked about the electoral bond in India, Rajan opined that the electoral bond is an utter non-transparent financial transaction and the parties are receiving funds which is not known to the public. When an industrialist provides 1000 crore to a political party, the public can never get the information on their transaction.

He then called it “a bad way of financing elections” and went on to say that maintaining a secret is hard in India as the ruling party can always find the details of the businessmen who donated funds to the opposition parties.

Rajan further explains that the government can ask the businesses that funded the opposition parties for the details on the donations. Rajan also advised opposition parties to use cash, instead of the electoral bonds ‘’elections are fought on money,” Rajan added.

Rajan also talked about using the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Income Tax Department (ITD), and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to target opposition parties by raiding their properties.

Talking about the raid against congress leader Dhiraj Prasad Sahu, Rajan commented that the money could have been used for the election.

Rajan also defended the congress party and argued many policies brought by the congress including the Goods and Service Tax (GST) ended up in paralysis because of the oppositions of the opposition parties (BJP), as the UPA were not majority during the 2009-2014 term, creating hurdles for the country’s progress.  However, Rajan blames the BJP for the paralysis created by the party when it was in the opposition.

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Former RBI Governor Dr Raghuram Rajam speaks on Revdi, Electoral Bonds, Trolls & more. @sanket https://t.co/JZK4bMNyPv pic.twitter.com/tKnkvpsXnF

— The Red Mike (@TheRedMike) December 12, 2023