New Delhi: Calling the BJP 'Bhrasht Janata Party', the Congress on Thursday alleged that the electoral bonds scheme was deliberately engineered by it to remove all transparency and oversight from political funding.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said it is time to expose Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "greatest jumla" that electoral bonds increased transparency in political funding.
"Before Electoral Bonds were introduced, parties had to submit an annual Contributions Report to the EC with the following information: For any donation more than Rs. 20,000 by any person or company -- name and address of donor and mount contributed," he pointed out.
After electoral bonds were introduced, donations made through electoral bonds did not have to be mentioned in the contribution report, Ramesh said.
"Both the ECI and RBI voiced their opposition to this move," he said in a post on X. "The Election Commission, in a May 2017 letter to the Law Ministry, stated that, 'it is evident... that any donation received by a political party through an electoral bond has been taken out of the ambit of reporting under the Contribution Report' and 'this is a retrograde step as far as transparency of donations is concerned and this proviso needs to be withdrawn'," he said.
According to Ramesh, the RBI, in a January 2017 letter had also stated that, "the intended purpose of transparency may not be achievable... The bonds are bearer bonds and are transferable by delivery. Hence who finally and actually contributes the bond to the political party will not be known."
As the EC and RBI had feared, not a single detail of which party got funds from which donor was revealed to the public before the Supreme Court intervened in February, Ramesh said.
"We now know that companies who donated to the BJP received more than 4 lakh crore worth of government contracts and clearances during the same period. Corruption on this scale would have been impossible without the opaqueness provided by the electoral bonds Scheme," he said.
"Before electoral bonds were introduced, companies had to follow certain rules while making political donations, according to Section 182 of the Companies Act, 2013: companies were not allowed to donate more than 7.5% of their average net profits from the last three financial years. Loss-making companies were not allowed to donate," he pointed out.
Every company had to provide a detail account of any political donations in its profit and loss statement, including the total amount contributed and the name of the political party, he said.
"After Electoral Bonds were introduced: The limit on political donations was scrapped. Any company, including loss-making companies, could donate unlimited amounts. Companies no longer had to reveal the specific amounts or even the names of the parties they donated to. They only had to show the total amount of political donations in the profit and loss statement," Ramesh said.
"We now know that 33 companies with negative or near-zero profits donated Rs. 434 crore worth of Electoral Bonds, and six companies' Electoral Bond donations (worth Rs. 601 crore) greatly exceeded their average net profits. Another 100+ crores were donated by suspected shell firms," he said.
Ramesh further said that foreign companies could use electoral bonds to make secret political donations. Before electoral bonds were introduced, foreign companies were banned from donating to political parties, he said.
"After Electoral Bonds were introduced, the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), 2010 was amended to allow foreign companies with subsidiaries in India to donate to political parties. Since the bonds were untraceable, and political parties and companies no longer had to report their activities, this essentially allowed foreign companies to make secret political donations," he said.
"In an affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court in March 2019, the Election Commission stated that, 'the said amendment allows donations to be received from foreign companies having majority stake in Indian companies... This would allow unchecked foreign funding of political parties in India which could lead to Indian policies being influenced by foreign companies'," he said.
Having enabled foreign companies to donate to the BJP through electoral bonds, the PM pulled a similar stunt through the opaque PM CARES fund during COVID-19, Ramesh alleged.
"No one has compromised the sovereignty of our nation more than the 'Vishguru' himself," the Congress general secretary alleged. "On multiple occasions, before and after it was introduced, the electoral bonds scheme was strongly opposed by the Election Commission and the RBI. The Modi Sarkar conveniently ignored their dissent and forced the corrupt scheme into law. The Electoral Bond Scam was deliberately engineered by the Bhrasht Janata Party to remove all transparency and oversight from political funding," he said.
"Mr. Modi, you've lied to the people of India over and over again, and your lies now stand exposed. On June 4th, the people of this country will ensure that you face the consequences," Ramesh said.
