Currently, politics is going on across the country on ‘Electoral Bond’. to corner the Bharatiya Janata Party, all the political parties including Congress are calling it the biggest scam in donations. But it is surprising to know that those who are not in power have received more money combined than the ruling BJP. Even after that these political parties are talking about transparency and creating ruckus!
On what moral grounds is the Congress Party talking about BJP, which has successfully received donations worth crores of rupees through ‘Electoral Bond’? Can’t understand this right now! In fact, every political party has the right to take donations to ensure the smooth running of its party. Here too, no one can legally question the political parties that have received donations from companies. Because it is the individual’s, group’s, organisation’s and company’s own decision as to whom they support and through whom the country will benefit. The democratic system of India and the Indian Constitution allow any individual/ company/organisation to donate any amount as per their wish to any political party considering the interest of the country.
In a way, it is good that the Supreme Court has made the Electoral Bond public through the Election Commission website to bring transparency to politics. This has also opened the doors for making many other important decisions in the future. For example, for all the ministries, departments and institutions performing Government work in the country, and those where the Right to Information is applicable, in all those places, the Supreme Court can further enforce that they should make public the information about all their purchases and savings along with their income. How much was the construction cost of a project? How much additional money was spent? Whether the work was completed within the stipulated time period or not? Etc. That means the court should give instructions to make every small and big information and, along with it, the bills and vouchers also public. The common man of the country will be very happy if the court takes such a decision.
In fact, this will mean that a lot of time is currently spent on the right to information. Sometimes, officials are late in responding, and sometimes, they deliberately do not want to give any information. In such a situation, there will be no need for an ‘Information Officer’ to provide any such type of information. Information about all public expenses and income, department-wise and institution-wise, will be publicly available on their web medium. Currently, the common man’s right to information costs crores of rupees across the country. That poor fellow has to run from pillar to post and gets worried and frustrated. The labour, time and money spent at the Government level will also be saved.
When the Supreme Court is talking about transparency then it should be on the entire system. Then why should the court be left out in this? What was the total wealth of which judge before getting the job, and how much has it become after joining the job? What are their sources of income apart from salary that suddenly the income of many of judges has increased a lot. All such information of every department and Government employee, including those associated with the justice system, should be made public. What is the need for secrecy in any matter except those in which the Constitution allows secrecy? At least it will become easier for journalists like us to collect information from whatever data they have to make news and to make the general public aware of its side in simple language. Why only journalists like us, every special and common man of the country, will have the correct information, including department-wise names, all the time. We are currently seeing the ubiquity of donations given by public companies, individual names, and political parties in the context of ‘Electoral Bonds’!
Coming back to the topic. Here, we are talking about Suchita (Morality) related to donations. Really can’t understand who has ruined political correctness by buying ‘Electoral Bond’! For which Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, Kapil Sibal and heads of other opposition parties, are putting the BJP in the dock? Because, if we look at the data related to the electoral bonds, this scheme was brought by the Government as an initiative to end the dominance of black money in Indian politics. The total number of electoral bonds purchased is worth a little over Rs 22,000 crore and is public.
According to the information given by the State Bank of India (SBI) to the Supreme Court, electoral bonds worth more than Rs 22.5 thousand were purchased. Of these, political parties encashed 22,030 bonds. In which BJP has received Rs 6,986.5 crore, and other political parties have received Rs 14,000 crore as donations. Among these, mainly TMC (Rs 1,397 crore), Congress (Rs 1,334 crore), BRS got Rs 1,322 crore, BJD got Rs 944.5 crore, DMK got Rs 656.5 crore. Apart from these political parties, YSR Congress got Rs 442.8 crore, TDP, Shiv Sena, RJD, Aam Aadmi Party, Janata Dal Secular, Sikkim Krantikari Morcha, Nationalist Congress Party, Janasena Party, Samajwadi Party, JDU, JMM, Shiromani Akali Dal, AIADMK, Sikkim Donations worth several crores of rupees have been given to national and regional parties like Democratic Front and Rashtriya Janata Dal. Apart from all this, the amount received by the Maharashtra Gomantak Party, JK National Conference, Nationalist Congress Party, and Maharashtra State has been less than one crore.
The big question here is when most of the political parties have raised election funds through ‘Electoral Bond’. Then why are they making noise about this issue? Why is the Opposition trying to say that? Hey! Is this a big corruption? In a way, Home Minister Amit Shah is not saying anything unreasonable today, what he is asking is that out of the total electoral bonds of more than Rs 20,000 crore, BJP has received more than Rs 6,000 crore. Where did the rest of the bonds go? Despite having 303 MPs, we get less than Rs 7,000 crore, and the rest get more than Rs 14,000 crore despite having 242 MPs. Amit Shah is asking what this ruckus is about. Certainly, in such a situation, it would be necessary to say that Lok Sabha elections have been announced in the country. In this great festival of democracy, there should be no attempt to mislead the general public by raising the issue of the Electoral Bond’. If someone is doing this, then it would be good if the Honorable Court took this into cognisance.
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