Transparency Triumph: As SBI Submits Electoral Bond Numbers, EC released all the data; has Disclosure Complete?

SBI Submits Electoral Bond Numbers to EC: The Election Commission has uploaded all the data along with the serial numbers of Electoral Bonds on its website on Thursday (March 21) evening. Now all the information about electoral bonds is available in the public domain. State Bank of India (SBI) told the Supreme Court today that it has submitted all the information related to electoral bonds to the Election Commission. SBI said that the new information also includes the serial numbers of the bonds. 

Last time, the Supreme Court had reprimanded the SBI chairman for not having these information. On March 18, the Supreme Court had ordered SBI to give all the information including alpha-numeric number and serial number of each bond, date of purchase of bonds and amount to the Election Commission by 5 pm on March 21. After this, State Bank of India filed an affidavit in the court at 3.30 pm on Thursday.

In an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court, SBI said that apart from bank account number and KYC details, no other details have been withheld. SBI said that due to security reasons, the KYC numbers of donors and political parties have not been made public.

SBI had released a two-page list on March 14

The Election Commission had earlier uploaded two lists of 763 pages on its website on March 14, containing information on bonds bought or cashed after April 2019. One list contained information on those who bought the bonds, while the other contained details of bonds received by political parties. On the instructions of the Supreme Court, SBI had provided information related to the bonds to the commission on March 14.

Who are the top 10 parties that receive donations?

According to the list, the Bharatiya Janata Party is at the top among the parties that receive donations through electoral bonds. BJP has received 6060 crores in donations since 2018. After this comes TMC, Mamata Banerjee’s party received donations of 1609 crores. The Congress party is at the third position, which received donations of Rs 1421 crores through electoral bonds. After this, donations were received from BRS (1214 crores), BJD (775 crores), DMK (639 crores), YSR Congress (337 crores), Telugu Desam Party (218 crores), Shiv Sena (158 crores) and RJD (Rs 72.50 crores).

On February 15, the Supreme Court had banned the Electoral Bond Scheme

On February 15, the Supreme Court had banned the 6-year-old Electoral Bond Scheme with immediate effect. The Supreme Court said- ‘This scheme is unconstitutional. Maintaining the confidentiality of the bond is unconstitutional. This scheme is a violation of the Right to Information. Now on March 13, it will be known who donated how much to which party.’

The Supreme Court said, “The Electoral Bond Scheme is declared unconstitutional because it violates people’s right to information. It can lead to an unfair practice of taking something in exchange for giving. In electoral donation, two parties are involved, the political party that receives the donation and the funder. This is done to support the political party or there may be a desire to get something in exchange for the contribution.” 

The argument to crack down on black money is not correct

The apex court said, “The argument to crack down on black money on the pretext of secrecy of political donations is not correct. This is a violation of the Right to Information. The fundamental right to privacy also includes keeping citizens’ political affiliations confidential.”