Now the smokescreen has fallen apart. Much as it was clear from the very inception, that the electoral bond scheme and the set of amendments to critical laws for ensuring some degree of transparency and ensuring level playing field in the elections was a camouflage. With the February 15 historic verdict of the Supreme Court adjudging the scheme as unconstitutional along with all those amendments upholding the fundamental right of the people to information underlined criminal intention of the government with clarity.
Of course, this needed a principled push by the apex court. The faith that the highest judiciary reposed on the biggest and the only banking entity for implementing the scheme was belied. The record of their subversion of the judicial objective is now in the open. Ultimately, the assertion of the apex court led to disclosure of all data including the alphanumeric number which decisively links to the identity of corporate donors of bonds with the corresponding recipients. The issues are beyond denial. Defense of defense, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) extreme discomfiture became evident when one of the chief architects of the regime, Amit Shah was desperately falsifying the data published by the Election Commission. Despite the godi media trying to completely belittle the significance of the verdict by non-reporting and under-reporting the implications of the process, the unraveling of the electoral bond has significantly dented BJP’s narrative.
For the last ten years, the Modi government has unfailingly assumed a high moral ground against corruption. The first boast was on the ground that the BJP will change the paradigm and break from the past in taking corruption head-on. ‘Na khaunga, Na khane dunga (won’t be corrupt, won’t allow anyone else to be corrupt)’ was the prime minister’s familiar refrain! It was then further refined that his role would be that of a vigilant watchman – ‘chowkidar’. The BJP’s propaganda machinery went into overdrive, claiming to be ruthless in dealing with corruption.
Also read: Why Did SBI Record Hidden Bonds Code – After Govt Said in 2018 That it Didn’t?
Of course, this projection betrayed a complete cluelessness about the nature of corruption in the contemporary world. Corruption today is not a question of personal traits, but its real nature is systemic. It arises out of neoliberal economic policies where the State itself is not bound by accountability towards citizens but to the dynamics of the market and the corporates whose only accountability is towards the shareholders of their respective corporate entities. Obviously, this corporate freedom needed constant facilitation from the State. Therefore, it was impossible to fight corruption without defending the rights of the citizens. All that was glossed over with demagogy for an abstract commitment to ‘hard work’, as opposed to ‘Harvard’ and its intellectual attributes.
This was a ruse to protect and secure the interests of corporate cronies who would disproportionately benefit from such a course of action. It was also clear that the games of such corporates would enrich the BJP and its allies, and the principle of quid pro quo would be all-pervasive in defining the direction of the government. The catchphrase dished out by the slogan-mongering regime – ‘minimum government and maximum governance’; no tax burden on the corporates and ensuring the freedom to earn profits.
The electoral bond scheme was introduced to extract a part of this state-sponsored facilitation for the ruling party. Therefore, from day one, we had described this process as the legalisation of political corruption. It is heartening that the facts and data that are exploding lifting the veil of secrecy, not only vindicates our initial assertion and the relentless principled struggle that we have waged.
What the verdict and the data have established
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI (M)] had understood at the very outset that the electoral bond will only reinforce the corporate-government nexus. Naturally, quid pro quo will be the motive force for forging this relationship. Not that political funding, particularly election funding in India has been free from corporate contributions; but the electoral bond scheme could make it impossible to understand and far less establish the dynamics of the process. Therefore, CPI (M) had taken this opposition to its hilt. Not only did it oppose in the floor of the Parliament, but armed itself morally by disabling the opportunity to receive bonds. This was crucial and even Supreme Court recognised that the CPI (M) is the only party which did not take any bond. In the aftermath of the revelations, the false narrative of EBs being an instrument to fight black money has become a laughing stock. There are six major consequences of the EB scheme which are out there in the open.
- Money laundering: The removal of cap for maximum limit of bond contribution has brought out the bizarre spectacle of companies donating bonds far in excess of their profits and earnings, with even companies with large losses donating bonds to political parties, particularly the BJP.
- The distinct presence of shell companies to facilitate this laundering.
- Quid pro quo by facilitating the awarding of license contract and favourable policy changesin lieu of donations. This phenomenon is being popularly paraphrased ‘Chanda do-Dhanda lo’.
- It facilitated the deployment of ED and CBI to raid corporates forcing them to contribute bonds. But for BJP this route was unavailable to other political parties. This has come to be popularly described as ‘hafta vasooli’.
- It allowed endangering public health in the country by condoning the violations of drug companies and allowed substandard drugs.
- It allowed undue advantage to BJP with its control over SBI by even going to the extent of encashing the expired bonds in clear violation of the legal provision.
This provides the firm ground to unambiguously state that the bonds donated by the corporates to the political party in power have severely breached the laws of the land. Therefore, the claim that this instrument has deterred black money is a complete travesty of facts. Illegal activities can only generate black money and not the other way around. Mere channelising of corporate money through the instrument of bonds to political parties through intermediation of a PSU bank does not make it white.
Battle of narrative now
The high moral ground and its undisputed claim to patriotism and nationalism stands challenged. The Ayodhya show with the prime minister donning the mantle of the principal custodian of Hindu religion as opposed to the Shankaracharyas, espousing Brahminism cannot wash away the level of fraud and deception. The transfer of deemed public funds to itself and to some of the regional parties by coincidence is indeed a war against the people and democracy.
Also read: Seven Points That Merit Investigations: The Electoral Bonds Saga Isn’t Over with Data Spilling Out
Therefore, what we are looking at is flagrant violation of the Model Code of Conduct which has come in force after the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections. A crusade against opposition parties particularly what is happening in Delhi with the arrest of the chief minister and sealing of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) office, the BJP seems to be desperate to disable the opposition.
The electoral bond scheme has shown that it brought together all the obnoxious elements of the BJP’s style of governance, particularly the undermining of constitutional and statutory entities. The Election Commission’s refusal to act in safeguarding well established conventions for holding and free and fair elections has to be seen in the light of this experience. Therefore, the unity of all political forces who are concerned in safeguarding the constitutional values and the mobilisation of people at large is the only way forward.
Nilotpal Basu was an MP of the Rajya Sabha for the CPI(M) for 12 years and is a member of the CPI (M) Polit Bureau presently.
