Illustration: Binay Sinha
The top ten entities who bought electoral bonds accounted for more than a third of the total donations by value. They bought bonds worth a total of Rs 4,200 crore. This is equivalent to 34.5 per cent of the total value of the bonds based on denomination value as shared by the Election Commission on Thursday evening. Each of the top ten donors are corporate entities.
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An email with detailed queries was sent on Thursday night to the company. It did not immediately receive a response.
The remaining 40 in the top 50 donors list accounted for Rs 2,989 crore or an additional 24.6 per cent of the total donations. The remaining 1,270 donors accounted for less than the top 50 combined. The 1,270 donors had total donations worth Rs 4,967 crore. This is 40.9 per cent, or less than half of the total donations through electoral bonds.
The Supreme Court had passed a judgement which noted that the anonymous nature of the bonds, and the lack of ceiling on donations, acted contrary to limits on corporate funding that existed earlier. The court has said that the limits must be retained and removed the scheme from operation. It observed that there can be a disproportionate impact of companies on policy if they are allowed to donate without being reigned in.
A report by the New Delhi-based Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) had noted that large denomination purchases of electoral bonds may mean that they are disproportionately being used by corporate entities.
It had also noted a surge in new political parties after the scheme was announced, in an October 2023 note.
“The reason for this glut of new parties definitely points out the needle of suspicion towards the government’s controversial electoral bonds and unlimited and anonymous corporate donations… 94.25 per cent or Rs 12,999 crore of the total value of bonds purchased were in the denomination of Rs 1 crore indicating that these bonds are being purchased by corporates rather than individuals,” it said.
First Published: Mar 14 2024 | 10:24 PM IST
