NEW DELHI, March 21: The electoral bonds scheme is the “worst mega corruption scam” in independent India and has led to “mafia-style extortions”, CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury has said.
The Left leader, whose Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) was among the petitioners in the case in Supreme Court that led to scrapping of electoral bonds, said their opposition to the scheme is based on principles and that state funding of polls can lead to transparency.
“Electoral bonds have turned out to be the worst mega corruption scam in independent India. Precisely what we had anticipated would happen through these electoral bonds is now being revealed. I had said it would be like mafia-style extortion. That can be seen now with these revelations that have come,” Yechury told PTI.
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The CPI-M leader said he had warned that there will be “quid pro quo sweetheart deals” when the scheme was first announced.
“Instead of tackling black money or curbing it, you are actually allowing money laundering to be done, whereby you allow black money to be converted into white and legitimately be donated. Companies have bought electoral bonds multiple times more than their annual profits,” he said.
He said shell companies have been used for money laundering and pointed out at donations by companies that have been under the net of various probe agencies.
“A new thing which has been revealed is that companies that are under the scanner for violating quality controls and norms for production, particularly drug companies, pharmaceutical companies, have used the electoral bond rules to buy their peace and not be prosecuted. And this is dangerous,” he said.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has denied any link between the functioning of investigative agencies, including the ED, and electoral funding to the ruling party, saying these allegations are just assumptions.
In its landmark verdict on February 15, the apex court had scrapped the Centre’s electoral bonds scheme that allowed anonymous political funding, calling it “unconstitutional” and ordered their disclosure.
The electoral bonds scheme was introduced on January 2, 2018. Electoral bonds were pitched as an alternative to cash donations made to political parties as part of efforts to bring transparency to political funding.
Asked what can be the way for ensuring transparency in polls funding, he said, “If you want to make political funding transparent, corporates must fund, but not political parties directly.”
“So it is a question of corporates funding our elections, funding our democracy, but it should go to a state fund. And there should be a system of state funding of elections,” he said.
He said a law can be made on corporate funding of democracy, on the lines of the corporate social responsibility law, and they can donate to a fund.
“Let the corporations donate to that fund. Let there be supervision of that fund by a government agency, publicly transparent, and fix up the norms, the rules by which the parties will receive that funds,” he said.
Yechury also accused the BJP of being brazen in not providing a list of those who have donated the bonds, and said its claim of being against corruption is just rhetoric.
“Now the BJP is brazenly refusing to provide the list of those who have donated these bonds to them. Regional parties like the DMK, etc. have given all the details.
“Our great ruling party, which talks in terms of corruption free and all sorts of rhetoric, it’s just empty rhetoric. Actually, their actions have been contributing to the worst form of political corruption in our country,” he said.
“And coupled with this, with the electoral funds that private corporations have set up, a huge part has gone to the BJP, to the ruling party. Then you have the PM CARES, where government orders were used to collect money from the public sector, from government servants, even from MPs and ex-MPs like me, from your pension, through government orders, money was siphoned out. And now they say it is a private fund. So they are not accountable or they need not be transparent,” he said.
“I mean the whole system has been corrupted. And this is not politics…They are just doing business,” Yechury charged.
The Centre has informed the Delhi High Court last year that the PM CARES Fund was set up as a public charitable trust, not a government fund as donations to it do not go to the Consolidated Fund of India. (PTI)
