On 17th March: Recent information reveals insights into how political parties have been funded through electoral bonds. This data, highlighting transactions up until now, shows significant financial flows to various political entities. However, it lacks details on the identities of donors, maintaining a level of anonymity in political funding.
NEW DELHI: On 17th March (Sunday): The Election Commission of India (ECI) released detailed information about electoral bonds, which are a medium for people to donate money to political parties anonymously. This information, given to the Supreme Court, covers details until April 12, 2019, and adds to the transparency the ECI is trying to bring to political donations.
The matter comes after the ECI announced the schedule for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, which will happen in seven phases from April 19 to June 1. The release of this new data shows the ECI’s effort to make election funding more transparent.
“The Registry of the Supreme Court has returned physical copies along with a digitized record of the same to a pen drive in a sealed cover. The Election Commission of India has uploaded the data received in digitized form from the registry of the Supreme Court on electoral bonds on its website,” the EC said in a statement today.
The data reveals basic information about the electoral bonds, such as when they were issued, their value, how many were bought, and which branch of the State Bank of India issued them. However, it doesn’t tell us who bought the bonds. Some political parties, like the Trinamool Congress, are asking for more details to follow the Supreme Court’s rules. Interestingly, not all parties use these bonds much for funding.
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Consequently, The data also shows that some parties, especially in places like AIDMK, received a lot of money through these bonds. Despite different parties using these bonds in various ways, they’ve become an important part of how political parties get funding.
Recently, the Supreme Court called the electoral bond scheme unconstitutional because it doesn’t disclose who is giving money to political parties. The decision has challenged the secrecy of the scheme and pushed for more openness in how political parties are funded.
Before this ruling, electoral bonds were a popular way for donors to give money to parties anonymously. This method has been important for political funding in India, showing how political financing is changing and sparking discussions about transparency and regulation.
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The BJP secured just under 48% of all electoral bond funds cashed by parties until March 2023, while the Congress received 11% during the same period.
Over half of the donations to political parties since 2018 were made through electoral bonds, as reported by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). However, the released data does not clarify which donors, individual or corporate, supported which parties, as it does not link the purchasers of the bonds to the receiving parties.
