Electoral Bond data released, but SBI hides the details, not providing full information about which company donated to which political party

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By: Vivek Bhavsar & Salman Khan

The Election Commission of India has finally got the list of electoral bond transactions from the State Bank of India (SBI). This happened after the Supreme Court scolded the bank for being late in giving the information. At first, SBI asked for more time until June, but the Supreme Court said they must give the information within 24 hours.

SBI quickly gave the information as the court ordered. But one important thing was missing: the names of the companies giving the electoral bonds. The list is split into two parts. One part says how much money different people spent on electoral bonds until now. The other part only says which political parties got the bonds and when.

But the critical thing, linking who gave the money to which political party, is still not clear. This is a big problem because it makes it hard to see if everything is fair. Even though the Supreme Court told SBI to say who gave money to which party, they didn’t do it.

Looking at the data we have, it’s clear that many electoral bonds, worth lots of money, were bought by big pharmaceutical companies. These are companies making important medicines like “Remdesivir” during the COVID-19 pandemic. This makes us wonder why they are giving so much money and how it might affect health policies and rules.

Similarly, we need to look at big companies involved in building things like roads and bridges. Why are they giving electoral bonds to political parties, and what are they getting in return?

Also, people in the stock market and brokers have given lots of bonds to political parties. We need to know why they did this and what they hope to gain.

It’s shocking to find out that over ₹13,000 crores worth of bonds were given secretly. And a big chunk of this went to the ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). This makes us worry about whether the election process is fair and equal. Secret transactions like these go against the basics of democracy and show the need for more openness and rules.

SBI not giving all the needed information to the Election Commission is breaking the Supreme Court’s orders. This not only hurts the fairness of the election process but also stops people from getting clear and honest information about elections.

As the country deals with these problems, it’s important for everyone to ask for fairness and make changes to make our democracy stronger. Only with strict rules and a clear commitment to openness can we protect elections from being influenced unfairly.

Also Read: Electoral Bonds Data Unveiled: Revealing Donations to Political Parties and Corporate Contributors