New Delhi: With the electoral bonds data put out in public domain, senior Congress leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram on Friday said the scheme was devised to "legalise bribery" and ensure that the ruling party is the biggest beneficiary. Chidambaram's remarks came a day after the Election Commission (EC) put up the data on electoral bonds on its website.
"The day the electoral bonds were introduced, I said it is legalised bribery. I still maintain that. Better system is a multi-pronged system. One system is to allow more open campaigning. The Election Commission's restrictions have driven the election campaign under the ground, they have placed too many restrictions," Chidambaram said at the India Today Conclave 2024.
"Elections are a festival of democracy, must have lot of rhetoric, song dance, speeches... They have restricted everything... Allow larger limit of expenditure for candidates. Nobody can fight and win an election on these ridiculously low amounts," he said. Instead of a multi-pronged approach, electoral bonds were introduced, which were devised to "legalise bribery" and ensure that the ruling party is the biggest beneficiary, the Congress leader said.
Asked if there was an inevitability to Prime Minister Narendra Modi winning the upcoming Lok Sabha polls for a third straight term, Chidambaram said, "Nothing is inevitable. Where was your channel when the 'India Shining' campaign was raging all over the country in 2004. Mr (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee who was a moderate man led the campaign but the Congress pipped them to the post by eight seats."
"I concede if the Hindi-speaking states vote in a particular manner, vote in a manner they voted last time, we have a battle on our hands. How the INDIA bloc will cope with the battle is for its leaders to determine. We will repeat the 2019 result in Tamil Nadu," he said. Rejecting suggestions that the elections were a done deal, Chidambaram said that if it is a done deal, "we should recommend no elections".
"People have to vote. I can't speak for the whole country but I think there are places where the Congress will win, whether it will be enough to form a government, I cannot say," Chidambaram said. "Let us assume that Mr Modi's party, the BJP, gets the majority, they will form the government and we will be in opposition. But opposition also matters in a democracy. Isn't it?" he said replying to the question if the Congress still matters.
"Yes the BJP has been able to attract more votes which is why it wins. That is a no-brainer. Question is can the Congress recover and win more votes. As I said the position is different in different states. I think we can win more than last time in Telangana, Karnataka, Haryana, we can win," he said. But in Hindi-speaking north Indian states, he said, he cannot make any prediction because "they all seem to be swayed by the Ram temple and the fervour about Lord Ram".
"Coming from Tamil Nadu, I am not able to think on that wavelength. But I can speak for the south, and in particular, I can speak for Tamil Nadu," he said. Chidambaram argued that when there is massive unemployment, significant poverty and huge gaps in education and healthcare, but people are not voting against the incumbent government, it must be for some reason. The Congress leader said he thinks the reason is the "Hindutva wave that seems to be sweeping Hindi-speaking northern states".
"I don't blame anyone, I don't criticise anyone. I am stating a fact as I see it. If that is a fact and if the Hindutva wave is sweeping across hindi-speaking northern India and if people are swayed by that, they will vote accordingly, and the country will have a government but you will have these problems unattended, unaddressed and people will suffer," he said.
Chidambaram also claimed that if the BJP returns to power for a third term and with a two-thirds majority, it will lead to major amendments to the Constitution which people will regret. "It is already some shades of an electoral autocracy. That is how the V-Dem institute describes India's democracy. If Mr Modi wins a third term, you can be assured, you can note the date and time, major amendments to the Constitution will be made. Let the PM say I will not make any amendments to the Constitution which interferes with the federal structure of the country," he said.
"Let the BJP say that, but they will not say that because they have planned to amend the Constitution and the forerunner of that is this 'one nation, one election'. How is this democratic? Tamil Nadu will go into a state election in 2026 and the assembly elected in 2026 will only have a three-year term under former president Mr Ram Nath Kovind's report," Chidambaram said.
