A day after the Supreme Court struck down the electoral bonds scheme as unconstitutional, government sources said that the order, delivered by a Constitution bench, “was being studied”. While no precipitate action was being contemplated with the polls around the corner, the bonds scheme had been brought in to reduce black money in the electoral system, the source said.
“The election bonds scheme was brought in to reduce the magnitude of black money pre-2017, and inject white money into poll funding, that was the main aim of the scheme, keeping information of donors anonymous was to provide comfort to the donors,” said a source in the government.
Asked if other models of poll funding via the white money route, like trusts that distribute contributions received by individuals to political parties was being looked at, the sources said that it had been studied in the past, but that it had “its own challenges”.
On the question of the rights of donors to keep their subscription to electoral bonds secret after the Supreme Court has asked the State Bank of India to disclose identities, government sources said that disclosure was “against the laws of banking”.
For now, the funding of political parties during polls will go back to the pre-2017 ways, the source said.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court had said that the scheme was violative of the rights of people to know who was donating to political parties. It had also directed SBI to stop issuing bonds and provide details of donations that had been made to the Election Commission of India, which has been asked to publish the data on its website by March 13.
