Shillong, Dec 12: The independent media group known as the Reporters Collective today published a detailed report into how the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has received crores of rupees from companies that have won state and central government contracts for different projects.
In 2022-23 and 2023-24, the Reporters Collective said that the BJP received Rs 77.63 crore from donors in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Tripura and nearly 55 percent of this amount came from contractors “who had been awarded tenders and secured regulatory clearances”.
Political parties are required to disclose details of donations above Rs 20,000 and the Reporters’ Collective analysed the BJP’s donors from these four North East states for the two fiscal years. The body then studied central and state databases to see whether there were links between those who donated to the BJP and the contracts they won during the time.
These donations are completely legal and there is no suggestion that the donors received any business benefit from giving money to the party. However, the feature in the Reporters Collective expressed concern that the North East, where state and central government spending accounts for so much of the local economy, is reliant on government cash more than other parts of India, which gives the party in power, namely the BJP, great leverage.
Although the BJP has just two elected MLAs in Meghalaya, its reach is still felt strongly.
Star Cement is a company based in Meghalaya and it donated Rs 5 crore to the BJP in 2023-24, according to the Reporters Collective. And this followed another Rs 6.68 crore over the previous three years, amounting to a substantial Rs 11.68 crore. It was only this year that the company signed an agreement with the government of Assam for a Rs 3,200 crore cement clinker project.
Since 2019, Star Cement has secured at least 18 tenders from the Border Roads Organisation, Indian Oil Corporation, National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) – all controlled by the central government – and state government departments for projects in Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Tripura.
Again, there is no suggestion that the company has done anything wrong. The firm also donated Rs 1 crore to the Trinamool Congress in 2023-24 and Rs 1 lakh to the Congress Party’s Beltola block committee that same year.
Responding to a query from the Reporters Collective, Star Cement said, “All contributions made by our company to political parties are undertaken strictly in accordance with statutory provisions, after obtaining requisite approvals. These contributions are fully disclosed in our annual reports, which are publicly available for inspection. Our company does not discriminate among political parties and has made contributions to major national political parties, as is clearly reflected in our disclosures.”
Contractors are not just donating to the BJP. With the saffron party only a junior member of the governing alliance, a lot of funds are working their way towards the National People’s Party (NPP), which is in firm control of the state government.
In 2022-23 the NPP received almost Rs 7.5 crore, Rs 4 crore of which came from just one person, Rimiful Shylla, wife of the current Deputy Chief Minister Sniawbhalang Dhar. It is under her name that much of the wealth of the powerful Dhar family, who have minted money from government contracts, is recorded. That same year, Meghalaya Cement Limited (Topcem) donated Rs 50 lakh to the NPP and Mark Laitflang Stone, owner of Avenues (a skills training institute that gets several state contracts too) donated Rs 35 lakh. All of this was also legal.
Another case highlighted by the Reporters Collective was that of the infamous builders of the new Meghalaya Legislative Assembly building in Mawdiangdiang.
In 2023-24 Badri Rai and Company donated Rs 1 crore to the BJP. In May 2022, the firm became known for all the wrong reasons when the dome of the new Assembly building under construction suddenly and spectacularly collapsed.
As it happens, Badri Rai did not win the contract for the building. It had put in a bid but lost to the Uttar Pradesh government’s Rajkiya Nirman Nigam Ltd. However, the UP-government-owned company subsequently subcontracted the work to Badri Rai.
The company has undertaken several other infrastructure projects in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya, like constructing roads, stadiums and government buildings. The Meghalaya Assembly building’s deadline has been pushed back time and time again and will now only be finished in June 2026. It is unclear if the company has faced any financial penalties for this or for the dome collapse. It was subsequently found that the design was too heavy for the supports keeping the structure up. By sheer blind luck no one was injured in the collapse, which took place in the wee hours.
Badri Rai has also been linked to construction work at the PA Sangma Sports Complex in Tura, where two walls collapsed on separate occasions. Then, in the run-up to the 2024 general election, Election Commission officials seized Rs 1.25 crore in cash from a car belonging to one Harshvardhan Singh, executive director of Badri Rai, in Arunachal Pradesh. The car was travelling immediately behind the convoy carrying none other than the Meghalaya Chief Minister, though the NPP denied any link.
