Electoral Bonds Cat Out Of The Bag, But Are The Questions Answered
Finally, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has released data provided by the State Bank of India on Electoral Bonds (EBs) purchased and encashed since 2019. This data supposedly sheds light on some of the pressing questions raised during recent debates before the apex court.
According to the data:
The Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) emerges as the biggest beneficiary, receiving the highest amount of money via EBs.
The BJP also leads in encashing EBs, raking in a staggering Rs 6060.5 crore, comprising over 47.5 per cent of the total bonds encashed between April 12, 2019, and January 24, 2024.
Following the BJP, the All India Trinamool Congress and the Congress Party stand as the second and third biggest recipients of EB funds.
The Bharat Rashtra Samithi, Biju Janata Dal, and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam were the other parties which encashed more than Rs 500 crore worth of electoral bonds during this period.
Corporate giants such as Future Gaming and Hotel Services, Megha Engineering and Infrastructures, and Haldia Energy, among others, top the list of companies purchasing EBs.
In total 22,217 bonds were purchased between April 1, 2019 and February 15, 2024 and 22,030 bonds were encashed by political parties in the same period.
However, critical questions remain unanswered:
The ECI's data only provides a list of bond purchases by companies and deposits by political parties, failing to establish connections between donors and recipients.
The absence of transparency makes it challenging to discern potential quid pro quo arrangements between bond-buying companies and governments.
While the data reveals that bonds were purchased in denominations of Rs 1 lakh, Rs 10 lakh, and Rs 1 crore since April 12, 2019, the lack of clarity regarding the specifics of these transactions raises doubts.
The top donors include Future Gaming and Hotel Services PR, Megha Engineering and Infrastructures, Haldia Energy, Vedanta, and Qwik Supply Chain (said to be owned by Reliance), among others. When the donations made by three companies headed by Radhesham Khetan – Keventers, Madanlal and MKJ – are combined, the donations made total Rs 572 crore, and place him in third position.
Among the other top donors are Essel Mining run by the Zee group, DLF, the Western UP Power Transmission Ltd, the Yashoda Hospital in Ghaziabad, Alok Narayan Pandey, Bellway International, Piramal Enterprises, Sun Pharma, Muthoot Finance, Vedanta Group, Bajaj Auto, Bajaj Finance, Bharti Airtel, Finolex Cables, Pearl Global, Navayuga, Salgaocar Corp, Torrent, Future Gaming, ITC Limited, and others.
The highest contribution came from Future Gaming and Hotel Services (based in Tamil Nadu) at Rs 1,368 crore. This was followed by Megha Engineering and Infrastructures (based in Telengana), which bought Rs 966 crore worth of electoral bonds. The data further reveals that Qwik Supply Chain bought Rs 410 crore worth of electoral bonds. Vedanta and Haldia Energy bought Rs 400 crore and Rs 377 crore worth of bonds, respectively.
