The Election Commission of India has made the fresh data on electoral bonds public.
New Delhi: In the ongoing saga around electoral bonds, the Election Commission on Sunday made public fresh data on electoral bonds, which it had submitted in sealed covers to the Supreme Court of India and was later asked to put in the public domain. The fresh data on electoral bonds is believed to pertain to the period before April 12, 2019. Notably, the electoral bond details after this date were made public by the poll panel last week.
Earlier, political parties had filed data on Electoral Bonds in sealed cover as directed by the Supreme Court’s interim order dated April 12, 2019, the poll panel said in a statement.
“Data so received from political parties was deposited in the Supreme Court without opening sealed covers. In pursuance of the Supreme Court’s order dated March 15, 2024, the Registry of the Supreme Court has returned physical copies along with a digitized record of the same in a pen drive in sealed cover. The Election Commission of India has today uploaded the data received in digitized form from the registry of the Supreme Court on electoral bonds on its website,” EC said.
RSS On Eloctoral Bonds
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale said on Sunday that the electoral bonds are an “experiment,” and time will tell how beneficial and effective they have been.
The RSS Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha (ABPS) on Sunday re-elected Dattatreya Hosabale for the post of ‘Sarkaryavah’ (general secretary) for three years. The Election Commission released the electoral bond data on Thursday, with a number of billionaire tycoons and lesser-known entities among the buyers.
From steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal to billionaire Sunil Bharti Mittal’s Airtel, Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta, ITC, Mahindra and Mahindra, and a lesser-known Future Gaming and Hotel Services were among the prominent buyers of the now-scrapped electoral bonds for making political donations.
Asked about concerns being raised on the electoral bonds issue and claims that they were purchased to get favours, Hosabale said the Sangh has not yet discussed it as the electoral bonds are an “experiment.”.
“It has been done with checks and balances and it is not that electoral bonds have suddenly been introduced today; such a scheme was introduced earlier also. Whenever a change is introduced, questions are raised. Questions were also raised when the EVMs (electronic voting machines) were introduced,” he said.
“It is natural that questions will be raised by people when new things come up. But time will tell how beneficial and effective the new system is. Hence, the Sangh thinks it should be left for experiment,” Hosabale said. The annual three-day ‘Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha’ of the RSS began at the ‘Smriti Bhavan’ complex in the Reshimbagh area of Maharashtra’s Nagpur city on Friday.
(With inputs from agencies)
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