Electoral bonds: Indian banks ordered to disclose anonymous political contributions

India’s Supreme Court has given government banks a mandate to disclose details of a controversial scheme that allows citizens and companies to donate anonymously to political parties.

The State Bank of India has asked for more time but has until the end of Tuesday to share the data with election authorities.

Details must also be published on the website by Friday.

The ruling comes just days before an announcement is expected to set a date for general elections and is seen as a setback for the system’s biggest beneficiary, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Dew.

His government launched an electoral bond system in 2018, saying it would increase the transparency of political funding. But critics say it has had the opposite effect and made the process more opaque.

Donors can buy fixed denomination bonds of 10 million to 10 million rupees (approximately $12 to 121,000, 9 to 94,182 pounds) from SBI branches and hand them over to political parties to convert into cash.

In its February order, the Supreme Court ordered the SBI not to issue such bonds in the future by providing details of purchasers and providing information about bonds redeemed by political parties to the Election Commission by March 6. was instructed to provide it.

However, two days before the deadline, the SBI filed a petition seeking an extension until June 30, stating that “collating information to confirm who has contributed to which political party is a time-consuming process.”

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the suit, ruling that banks could be considered willfully disobeying the court’s order if they missed a deadline to share the information “by the close of business.” He said he had given notice. on tuesday.

The bank said it has details such as donors, bond denominations, when and how much was redeemed by which parties, but these are in “separate silos.” The court has asked SBI to “disclose information already available,” meaning it may not be possible to immediately understand who donated how much to which party by looking at the data. do.

Critics of the electoral bond system had challenged it at the Supreme Court, calling it a “distortion of democracy.”

The Indian government had defended the policy, arguing that it was introduced to eliminate cash donations to political parties, as many of India’s elections are financed by private donations.

But the court ruled that the plan violated the people’s right to access information from their government.

Monday’s development comes amid another controversy over the sudden resignation of India’s chief election official just days before the polling date was announced.

On Saturday, the resignation of Arun Goel, deputy director of the Election Commission, was announced. The official reason for Goel’s resignation has not yet been disclosed, but opposition parties have questioned the timing and are demanding that Modi’s government explain the real reason for Goel’s resignation.

His resignation means that out of the three members currently delegated to the commission, there is only one, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar.

Mr. Modi’s party is aiming for a third consecutive term in general elections scheduled in the coming months.