When the Govt Wanted Electoral Bonds Data, SBI Didn't Need Extra Time to Provide it

The State Bank of India (SBI) has asked the Supreme Court time till June 30 to provide details of electoral bonds. While SBI moves sluggishly in disclosing the names of those who played secret santas to political parties saying it is a laborious task, the bank has in the past displayed stunning agility in fulfilling similar government inquiries.

Days after the court struck down the contentious fund-raising scheme that granted anonymity to donors of political parties, and asked SBI, which issued the bonds, to divulge donor details, the bank told the court it would take months for it to match the buyer of the bonds with beneficiary parties.

But in a trove of documents, which transparency activist Commodore Lokesh Batra had shared with The Collective and formed the basis of a series of investigative exposes on electoral bonds in 2019 and 2020, there are many pieces of pivotal evidence that prove SBI raced to provide data on electoral bonds to the government in the shortest possible time, sometimes in merely 48 hours.

The documents reveal that SBI, on Union Finance Ministry’s beckoning, was able to collate data on electoral bonds from across the country within 48 hours after the deadline to encash the bonds ended. It sent such information religiously to the Union finance ministry after every window period of sale. The Collective verified such missives being sent up to 2020.

The story was originally published by The Reporters' Collective. Read the full story on their website.

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