New Delhi, Feb 13 (PTI) Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Tuesday likened the electoral bond scheme to the “legalisation of political corruption” and hoped that the Supreme Court would soon deliver its verdict on pleas to scrap the scheme.
In a video shared on ‘X’ by the CPI(M), Yechury also hoped the Election Commission would be questioned about changing its stand on opposing electoral bonds.
“It’s been more than three months since the Supreme Court completed the hearings on pleas, including mine, seeking the scrapping of the electoral bond scheme. The verdict has not yet come,” he is heard saying in the video.
“In the meanwhile, two tranches of new electoral bonds have been issued and this legalisation of political corruption continues,” Yechury said.
“We hope that the Supreme Court will give its verdict soon and scrap the legalisation of political corruption in the country. And we also hope that the Election Commission will also be questioned on how it turned its face and reversed its position of its earlier opposition to electoral bonds,” he added.
Introduced in January 2018, electoral bonds are monetary instruments that citizens or corporate groups can buy from a bank and give to a political party, which is then free to redeem the same for money.
The Supreme Court wrapped up the hearing on pleas filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms, Common Cause and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) against the electoral bonds on November 2 last year.
The ruling BJP received nearly Rs 1,300 crore through electoral bonds in 2022-23.
The party’s total contributions stood at Rs 2,120 crore in the 2022-23 fiscal, of which 61 per cent came from electoral bonds, according to the BJP’s annual audited report submitted to the Election Commission.
The Congress earned Rs 171 crore from electoral bonds in 2022-23, down from Rs 236 crore in 2021-22. PTI AO IJT
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