India's top court asks SBI for data to link political fund donors, recipients

RPSG Ventures

18/03/2024 08:40

NEW DELHI, March 18 (Reuters) - India's Supreme Court
ordered the State Bank of India (SBI)  SBI.NS  on Monday to
submit all the details of so-called electoral bonds issued under
an opaque political funding system, just a month before general
elections.
    The further details of the controversial funding mechanism,
introduced in 2017 but subsequently scrapped, are expected to
make public information linking donors to political parties over
the last five years, and the size of their donations.
    Corporate funding of political parties is a sensitive matter
 in India, where the February scrapping of electoral bonds,
along with the publicising of the names of donors and
recipients, has become a hot topic ahead of elections due by
May.
    The Supreme Court gave the state-run lender until Thursday
to provide the Election Commission of India with the unique
identification numbers of the bonds, so as to allow donors to be
matched with recipients.
    "You have to disclose all details ... we must have finality
to it," Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said.
    The election commission, in its turn, was directed to make
the information public "forthwith".
    Last week, the commission made public some data on donations
made since April 2019 under the funding mechanism that allowed
anonymous unlimited donations by companies and individuals using
the electoral bonds.
    Some of India's biggest companies, such as Vedanta Ltd
 VDAN.NS , Bharti Airtel  BRTI.NS , RPSG Group and Essel Mining
were among the top political funders over the last five years,
the data showed. 
    But last week's data did not link donors to recipients,
though it showed that nearly half of all donations were received
by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra
Modi, who will seek a rare third term at the polls.
    Critics say such bonds helped companies hide their donations
to avoid any accusations of winning favours from the ruling
party.
    On Sunday, the leader of the main opposition Congress party,
Rahul Gandhi, accused Modi's government of using electoral bonds
to extort money from companies, an accusation the government has
strongly denied.
    Industry bodies Assocham, the Confederation of Indian
Industry and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and
Industry sought to stop the court from making public information
about who donated to which party.
    "Protection of anonymity is critical for preserving donors'
privacy and guarding against any adversity by any opposing
political factions to whom the investment is not made by a
corporate," Assocham said.
    The court did not hear their plea.

 (Reporting by Arpan Chaturvedi and Tanvi Mehta; Editing by YP
Rajesh and Clarence Fernandez)
 ((tanvi.mehta@thomsonreuters.com; https://twitter.com/TanviMehta710;))