Electoral Bonds Biggest Scam In History Of India, Voter Must Know Who Is Funding Parties : Kapil Sibal

In a recent interview with veteran journalist Nidhi Razdan, Senior Advocate and Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal recently said that the electoral bonds scheme is perhaps the biggest scam in the history of the country and the whole purpose of the scheme is to enrich the ruling political party.  He termed the scheme a subversion of democracy and the electoral system. He also said that elections could never be free or fair under a system of this kind. 

On November 2nd, the Supreme Court reserved its judgment in a batch of petitions challenging the amendments introduced by the Finance Act, 2017 paving the way for the anonymous electoral bonds scheme. A Constitution Bench comprising of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justices Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra heard the matter for three days.

Sibal, who argued for one of the petitioners, prefaced the interview by stating that he usually does not speak on cases in which he has argued, however he chose to speak about the case,, due to the gravity of the matter. “This is the first time that I am actually giving an interview in respect to a matter in which I have argued. I normally don't do that and yet I believe that this is such an important matter that I need to put the facts before the country.” he said.

Sibal said that the scheme was brought into force to fund the ruling party, making it the richest party in the country. He said that the very name 'electoral bonds' was a misnomer, because it had nothing to do with the elections. The actual intent behind the scheme is for the funding to go to the party, he explained. 

The Attorney General in a statement filed before the Court in the electoral bonds case, had submitted that the citizens do not have the right to information under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution regarding the funding of a political party. When asked by Razdan about this stand taken by the Centre, Sibal said that this was a misleading statement. 

“.this was misleading, because they do. If you donate above 20,000 rupees, not through electoral bonds, the public has a right to know. See the anomaly. If you donate something through electoral bonds, which can be 1,000 rupees 10,000 rupees up to a crore rupees, you can do it through electoral bonds and the public will not know. But if you don't do it through an electoral bonds the public has a right to know because anything above 20,000 rupees has to be declared. So what's the logic for that? The BJP knows that all this money will come to them, that's how they are controlling the elections in this country.”

When Razdan pointed out that the argument in favour of the scheme was that anonymity would ensure that there would be no vengeance against those who did not donate to a particular party, Sibal dismissed it as a bogus claim.

“..this also has no basis at all because every big corporate house funds all political parties. In the state they will fund them more but in the center they will fund the BJP. So who will they complain to? This whole concept of anonymity is all bogus for the simple reason that a person who donates will tell the party that I have donated. That's the quid pro quo. Why would a person donate with anonymity? Because if he has donated a crore or five crores or 10 crores it goes without saying that the whole purpose of a donation is to take favours."

"Let me tell you the really serious nexus involved here.The corporate sector donates to the party. The corporate sector controls the media. All the big corporate houses have their main stream media channels. So they donate to the party and the party gives advertisements to those channels and that money is funnelled through. Then that channel propagates the ideology of the BJP which is therefore a very serious nexus and the people in this country don't even know about it."

Sibal pointed out that the scheme was brought into force, despite the opposition of the Election Commission and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). 

“The election commission opposed it in writing but when it came to court it never said anything. The Reserve Bank of India opposed and yet the scheme went through. Because this was an ideal strategy devised by the then finance minister to enrich the BJP and he succeeded it. Now if you get this kind of money in your coffers how will anybody party compete? In fact it's the subversion of democracy. Article 324 of the Constitution talks about free and fair elections. With this kind of money, the election can neither be free nor it can be fair. So it is a complete subversion of our electoral system.”

When asked by Razdan whether he was disappointed that the Election Commission didn't take a strong stand against the scheme when the matter was take up in court, he said “at this point I'm disappointed with all institutions. Forget about just the election commission, what have institutions done for this country of late?”

When asked about long delay it took for the Apex Court to take up the matter, he said “..when you talk of justice delayed being justice denied what does it mean? If you don't take up an issue when the moment is arrived to take it up and you take it after 5 years what do you end up with? You end up enriching the party and subverting democracy and we all are responsible for that..”

Sibal tried to explain that it was fundamental to democracy, that citizens know where political parties get their funding from. 

“..it is the fundamental of democracy that I must know who is being funded and by whom, so that I can find out what the quid pro quo is. Remember this is also a law which protects the criminal. Because if you do not disclose the name of the person who has donated, then you don't know what favour he has got. Under the law, if you give money for a favour to a public servant you can be prosecuted under the Prevention of Corruption Act. So in a way, this law protects criminals, because it will never be disclosed,” he said.

He said that the INDIA alliance (the opposition) must make a statement that when they come to power, they will get expose the corruption in the scheme and clean up the system.  

“..so I want the India Alliance to go public in a press conference, to make a statement that if and when we come to power, the first thing we will do is to dismantle this whole process that has resulted in the enrichment of the BJP. Whichever corporate sector has done this, we will get to know their names and whatever favour they have gotten. Each one of them will be prosecuted. But the problem is that many of the governments in the states which are also with the opposition may also be subjected to this, but if you want to clean the system, if you want our constitution to function and be a practising democracy, then you have to do this. You cannot allow this kind of poison to enter into the veins of our political system.”

Sibal also said that even if the case is decided in favour of the petitioners, the BJP has already benefitted abundantly from the scheme.  

“.. even if the Supreme Court decides in our favour, they've already enriched themselves. Except that in the coming 2024 elections, whatever they have earned they have earned, they won't be able to earn more. Otherwise they are already enriched, there's nothing you can do about it. That's a very serious issue. In other words, you have used public money through various means, you have enriched yourself by calling in electoral bonds which has nothing to do with elections, you're the richest party in the world and you're using that economic might which translates into political might and you're using the entire media system to do your bidding..” he said.