Indian elections are intricate and complex events. Political parties rely heavily on contributions from individuals and corporations to finance their campaigns, as funding is crucial. A lot of black money also circulates during elections. When Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister of India in 2014, he promised to prevent using illegal money in politics. In 2017, he introduced electoral bonds that he claimed would increase transparency in political funding. However, some people challenged the secrecy clause and violation of fundamental rights in the Supreme Court.
Recently, the Supreme Court declared anonymous political donations to be invalid. This decision could make it difficult for their campaigns before the 2024 elections. The top court ruled that “electoral bonds” violate citizens’ right to access government information and violate Article 19(1) (a) of the Constitution. The government-owned State Bank of India has been ordered to stop issuing these bonds and provide details to the Election Commission of India. A group of five judges passed this verdict.
Judges examined if the electoral bond scheme broke constitutional rules, stopped voters from getting vital information, allowed secret donations while protecting donors’ privacy, and threatened democratic processes. Previously, political parties were required to disclose the identities of donors who contributed more than 20,000 rupees. However, electoral bonds allow political parties to report the money received without revealing the donors’ identities. These bonds have a range of 1,000 to 10 million rupees.
Political funding must be transparent. People must know if political funding is transparent or not. One of the main criticisms is that it’s hard to trace where the money comes from when buying these bonds, making it challenging to identify the source of the funds. The Supreme Court’s verdict is not good news for most parties, particularly the ruling BJP. From 2018 to March 2022, the BJP received 57 per cent of donations, while Congress only got 10 per cent. Besides these two parties, some other political parties benefited from the bonds.
During the 2019 elections, political parties received a record-breaking amount of Rs 2,760.20 crore in anonymous donations through electoral bonds. This was the highest amount received in 2017-18 and 2018-19. From 2017-18 to 2020-21, 19 political parties redeemed electoral bonds worth approximately Rs 6.5 thousand crore. The spending on the last six Lok Sabha elections increased almost six-fold, from Rs 9,000 to over Rs 55,000 crore in 2019.
To prevent the influence of money in elections in the future, we need regulations for donations, spending limits, public funding, and disclosure. Taxpayers should know where political parties get their funding. The lack of transparency raises accountability questions. Taxpayers’ money is spent printing bonds, and SBI profits from their sales. It is expected that the government would honour the highest court’s ruling, unlike in earlier occasions. The court has delivered its verdict, and now it must be put into action.
