Electoral bonds can now redeem themselves and Supreme Court. Anonymity cloak set to come off

The Supreme Court’s recent judgment on electoral bonds goes beyond simply declaring the scheme unconstitutional. It opens the path for disclosing who donated how much money to which political party, and validating the Election Commission’s criticism of the scheme before it was introduced by the Narendra Modi government in 2017.

The court addressed concerns about transparency in political funding and emphasised citizens’ right to information—which activists argue has been eroded over time through successive amendments.

Through its verdict, the court effectively dismissed the Modi government’s argument that “citizens do not have a general right to know regarding the founding of political parties”. The five-judge bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud highlighted that disclosing information on donations to political parties is necessary to prevent “corruption and quid pro quo transactions in governance”.

In 2017, then-Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had proposed electoral bond as an “effort to cleanse the system of funding of political parties”. He had argued that the scheme “will bring about greater transparency and accountability in political funding, while preventing future generation of black money.”

The electoral bonds are now set to bring transparency in political fundings, but not in the way Jaitley suggested. The Supreme Court has directed the State Bank of India to submit details of electoral bonds purchased since April 2019 to the Election Commission of India, which in turn must publish this information on its website by 13 March 2024.

In a way, the electoral bonds stands a chance not only to redeem itself but also the Supreme Court. In April 2019, a month before the general election, the Supreme Court bench headed by then-CJI Ranjan Gogoi refused to grant an interim stay on the operation of the electoral bonds. Now, the court has come up with a judgment based exclusively on the rights of the citizens.

And that is why, the electoral bond is ThePrint’s Newsmaker of the Week.

‘A sleight of hand’

The government notified the electoral bonds scheme on 2 January 2018. As per the scheme, the bonds were sold in multiples of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 1 lakh, Rs 10 lakh, and Rs 1 crore, and could be bought by any Indian citizen or an entity incorporated or established in India.

On 7 January, Jaitley took to Facebook to defend the move, claiming that the scheme “envisages total clean money and substantial transparency coming into the system of political funding”. However, the criticism had already begun mounting. Political activist Yogendra Yadav wrote that Jaitley’s electoral reforms are not what they claim to be criticising his Budget speech as one that “combined an element of surprise, some degree of deception and a sleight of hand”.

Since then, the electoral bonds have had an interesting character arc—challenged right away in the Supreme Court through multiple petitions, which were looked into two years later in 2019, only for the bench to refuse an interim stay. The order said that such “weighty issues which have a tremendous bearing on the sanctity of the electoral process in the country…would require an indepth hearing”.

The 2019 election was the world’s most expensive. As per reports, political parties spent nearly Rs 60,000 crore, more than double the amount spent during the 2014 election. In 2020, then CJI SA Bobde also refused to stay the scheme, while the donations kept mounting.

A year later, in March 2020, Ranjan Gogoi, now a Rajya Sabha MP, when asked about the electoral bonds case, told Times Now, “Electoral bond issue, I do not remember, frankly.”

Six years and five CJIs later, the matter was finally taken up in 2023, with the court reserving its judgment in November. Delivered on Thursday, the judgment was a scathing indictment of the scheme and laid bare the impact that the electoral bonds had on elections and democracy. The verdict also revealed that the Election Commission of India had called the electoral bonds scheme a “retrograde step as far as transparency of donations is concerned” in 2017.

The Turkish bath

The judgment has given the Supreme Court an opportunity to redeem itself, with accolades pouring in for its emphasis on citizens’ rights.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi posted on X (formerly Twitter): “Another proof of Narendra Modi’s corrupt policies is in front of you. BJP had made electoral bonds a medium for taking bribes and commission.” His colleague Jairam Ramesh wrote that the judgment “will reinforce the power of votes over notes”. Former Chief Election Commissioners have also welcomed the verdict, hailing the fact that the court addressed the concerns raised by the Election Commission of India.

Anjali Bhardwaj, co-convener of National Campaign for People’s Right to Information, hailed the judgment as “very historic”. “Political party funding has been the fountainhead of corruption and generation of black money…The parties will work for those who fund them, so therefore as a voter, to be able to cast an informed vote, it’s important that people know who is funding the political parties,” she told ThePrint.

BJP national vice-president Baijayant Jay Panda argued that the data on electoral bonds “demonstrates comprehensively that no party has faced discrimination, including & especially those who have seen a drastic reduction in public support”. However, the numbers in the Supreme Court judgment say otherwise.

The data shows that the BJP received the most amount of donations through electoral bonds every year from 2017-2018 to 2022-2023. In 2022-2023, it received Rs 1,294 crore. As against this, the Congress received 171 crore and the TMC received Rs 325 crore. BJP, therefore, received the lion’s share of the bonds sold over the last six financial years.

But who donated all this money, and to whom? If everything goes according to the Supreme Court’s plan, this information will be revealed on 13 March. So, over the years, the bonds, almost dressed up as a Trojan horse—in a cloak of assured anonymity—travelled among the movers and shakers of Indian politics.

This cloak is now set to come off.

(Edited by Prashant)