PM Modi: Electoral Bonds Scheme Made Money Trail Clear, Everyone Will Regret Scrapping It

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Last Updated:April 15, 2024, 22:55 IST

"Due to electoral bonds, you were getting the trail of the money. Which company gave it or how did they give it? Where did they give it? And that is why I say when they (opposition) will think honestly, everyone will regret it [the Supreme...Read More

PM Modi attacked the Congress for joining hands with DMK. (Image: ANI)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in an interview with ANI, defended electoral bonds scheme, saying it made the money trail clear and “everyone would regret scrapping it".

“There has been a discussion in our country for a long time that the play of black money in the country’s elections should ends. Money is spent in elections, nobody can deny this. My party also spends, all parties, candidates spend and money has to be taken from people. I wanted that we try something to free the elections of this black money? There was a pure thought in my mind. We were looking for a way. We found a small way, we never claimed that this was the absolute way," he said.

PM Modi defends #ElectoralBonds, says “poll bonds used to leave money trail. That’s why I say everyone will regret it once they honestly think about it"News18’s @AmanKayamHai_ @payalmehta100 and decodes PM’s statement @JamwalNews18 | #PMModi #LokSabhaElections2024 pic.twitter.com/c7ZMVqQy7l
— News18 (@CNNnews18) April 15, 2024

“Due to electoral bonds you were getting the trail of the money. Which company gave it or how did they give it? Where did they give it? And that is why I say when they (opposition) will think honestly, everyone will regret it [the Supreme Court decision to scrap electoral bonds]," he told ANI.

He said there was debate in Parliament on the electoral bonds scheme when the relevant bill was passed and some of those who are now commenting on it had supported it. He referred to the government’s decision to disband Rs 1,000 and Rs 2,000 denomination currency notes as part of its efforts to tackle black money. “These notes were moved in large quantities during the elections. We took the step so that black money ends," PM Modi said. The Prime Minister said political parties were earlier allowed cash donations up to Rs 20,000 and he changed it to Rs 2,500 as he did not want “this cash business" to go on.

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He said the BJP had earlier decided to take all political donation by cheques, but business people came and said they cannot pay through this mode as government would get to know how much they had contributed to a political party and would “trouble them". “I remember in the nineties, the BJP faced a lot of problems. There was no money as we had this rule. Those wanting to give did not have courage to do so…I was aware of all this…. now see, if there was no electoral bond, which system has the power to find out how the money came and where it went," he said. “This is the success story of electoral bonds…Whether what happened in the process was good or bad can be an issue of debate… There was a lot of scope of improvement in this also. But today we have completely pushed the country towards black money," he said.

Modi also attacked the opposition for spreading lies over electoral bonds and said of the 3,000 companies that gave donations through the scheme, 26 faced action by probe agencies such as ED. He said of these 26 companies, there were 16 who took electoral bonds “Of these (16 companies) 37 per cent of the amount went to BJP and 63 per cent to opposition parties opposed to BJP. “There is an ED raid… the work of donating to the opposition, will BJP do this? This means 63 per cent of this amount went to the opposition and you are making allegations against us. Their goal is to keep skirting around and run away."

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Introduced in 2018, electoral bonds allowed citizens to donate to political parties anonymously — i.e., the identity of the donor was not disclosed to the public. Since then, parties across the spectrum have collected huge amounts through this mode, which also became one of the biggest contributors to their income. In a landmark verdict delivered on February 15, a five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court (SC) scrapped the Centre’s electoral bonds scheme that allowed anonymous political funding, calling it “unconstitutional" and ordered disclosure of data by the Election Commission of the donors, the amount donated by them, and the recipients. The top court also said: “Infringement of the voter’s right to know is not proportionally justified by saying black money is being curbed."

The SC also directed banks to stop issuing electoral bonds. It asked the State Bank of India (SBI) to submit a report on donations through electoral bonds to the Election Commission.

For the scheme, Section 29C of The Representation of the People Act, 1951, was amended to remove the obligation of political parties to keep a record of the identity of donors who gave any sum of money through electoral bonds or report this to the poll body annually.