‘Modi Government Put Pressure On SBI,’ Says Congress On Electoral Bond Data, Demands Answers For 6 Questions

BJP and Modi government put pressure on State Bank of India not to share the information on electoral bonds, Congress alleged. Congress’ allegations come after the State Bank of India yesterday filed an application before the Supreme Court asking for time till June 30 to share the information.

In this context, Congress party put forth six questions and demanded answers from the government:

▪ Why does the country’s largest and fully computerized bank need 5 months to provide information about electoral bonds? Complete information can be extracted in 5 minutes with one click.

▪ Why did State Bank ask for more time to provide information only a day before the last date for providing information? Did it also take a month to calculate exactly how much time it would take?

▪SBI, which operates 48 crore accounts, 66 thousand ATMs and 23 thousand branches, needs 5 months to provide information about only 22217 electoral bonds?

▪ The question arises whether the country’s largest government bank has now become a means of hiding the financial irregularities of the BJP and the means to conceal source of black money.

▪ The question arises whether a political party and a government bank are together defying the decision of the Supreme Court of the country.

▪ The question arises whether before the Lok Sabha elections, do people of the country have the right to get correct information and take the right decision during voting?

Supriya Shrinate, Chairperson Social Media and Digital Platforms, AICC, in a press statement alleged that the ruling BJP, which is the single largest beneficiary of the electoral bond scheme, was uneasy after the Supreme Court decision. The Supreme Court had directed the SBI to make the complete information related to election donations public before March 6, 2024 (before the Lok Sabha elections) and submit it to the Election Commission.

”BJP has been afraid that as soon as the information about its donor friends became public, BJP’s dishonesty and its unholy nexus with select corporates would be exposed,” Srinate said.