Electoral Bonds

The black world of political funding exposed 

In the first 10 days of January 2022, about Rs 1,213 crore of electoral bonds have been sold from SBI to donate to political parties. In this way, in 4 years from 2018 till now, political parties have received donations of Rs 9,207 crore from electoral bonds. Where did this money come from and who gave it, it is not known.

On the one hand, the public has to give an account of their income and expenses. On the other hand, political parties have changed many laws at once to save themselves from accountability.

Experts believe that political donations have now become a means of making black money. In such a situation, understand today in Bhaskar Indepth - how do political parties get funding? How dark is the whole world of political funding? What is Electoral Bond and why are questions being raised on it? How the game of converting black money into white through cash and bonds is going on?

How does a political party get funding?

Before knowing how the funding of big political parties of the country is getting scammed, it is important to understand how they get funding. Political parties in India have 4 ways to raise funds…

• directly through people
• through corporate houses or companies
• through foreign companies
• through public or government funding

1. Common people donate to any party in 3 ways…

• cash
• By sending money to the party's account
• through electoral bonds

2. Corporate or company donates to parties in 2 ways...

• through electoral trust
• through electoral bonds

3. There are two types of public or government funding-

Direct Public Funding: The government gives direct money to political parties to contest elections. There is no such system in India.

Indirect Public Funding: In this, free time is provided to the parties for publicity in government media, stadiums, grounds, conference halls are provided free of cost for rallies.

If we account for all the methods of funding political parties in the country and the amount received by the parties through them, then it becomes clear that this black game of funding is going on broadly in three ways.

 First- cash, second- electoral bonds and third- donations taken from foreign companies.

Biggest medium of political donation: Electoral Bond

What is Electoral Bond: An electoral bond is like a bearer cheque. It neither bears the name of the buyer of the bond nor the name of the party to whom it is to be given.

Where and how to get Electoral Bonds: Usually, the central government decides the time to buy electoral bonds for 10-10 days in January, April, July and October. For this, 29 SBI branches have been fixed in the country. Most of these branches of SBI are in the capital of the states.

The central government can also give an additional 30 days in the election year of the Lok Sabha.

Who can buy: Any Indian citizen, Hindu undivided family, any company, firm, any association of people and any agency. An individual can also buy bonds either singly or in association with others.

How many rupees bonds are there: There are 5 types of bonds - 1 thousand, 10 thousand, 1 lakh, 10 lakh and 1 crore.

Which party can take an electoral bond: There are two conditions. First- Only a political party registered under the Representation of the People Act can take an electoral bond. Second- This party should have got at least 1% of the votes in the Assembly or Lok Sabha elections held immediately before this.

It is clear that this is a loss deal for the new and small parties.

In how many days the bond can be cashed: The bond can be cashed only within 15 days of issuance. Otherwise, this money goes to the Prime Minister's Relief Fund.

This is how parties digest thousands of crores of confidential donations through electoral bonds.

Electoral bonds account for 70% to 80% of the funding received by the top 5 political parties of the country these days.

The specialty of electoral bonds is that the giver is not known in it. In such a situation, the source of 70% to 80% of the donations received by political parties is not known.

This rule encourages unaccounted money, ie black money. It can be used by political parties to make policies in their favor. If the name of the donating company or person is not known, then the common people do not know why the government is making this policy.