Opposition parties welcomed the Supreme Court’s Thursday judgment striking down the electoral bonds scheme, hailing it as a step towards the “revival of democracy” and the end of a scheme that “legalised corruption.”
They especially welcomed the March 13 deadline prescribed by the top court for the Election Commission of India to publish the information on contributions received by political parties via electoral bonds on its website. Over the last five years, the Opposition has attacked the government for its bias towards the Adani group, which it claimed has established a monopoly in several sectors, especially airports and ports. The parties also hoped that this would be the first step towards bringing in further electoral reforms.
‘Legalised political corruption’
Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said that this would “expose the murky deal makings of the ruling party”. He underlined that the CPI(M), which was one of the petitioners in the case, has never accepted electoral bonds.
“We have always maintained and even now maintain, that electoral bonds legalise political corruption. We are satisfied that most of the points that we raised in our petition have been upheld by the Supreme Court,” he said, in a post on X. Mr. Yechury added that it was now essential for political and electoral funding reforms to be introduced to ensure transparency, clean funding, and a level playing field.
“In the past decade, BJP has time and again tried to corrupt and compromise our electoral system. SC has put a halt to one such malpractice today. Today’s judgement should generate a wider debate on comprehensive electoral reforms including state funding of elections as recommended by the Indrajit Gupta Committee,” CPI general secretary D. Raja said.
‘Reviving democracy’
The Opposition’s reactions were also tinged with taunts for the ruling party. The Trinamool Congress’ leader in the Rajya Sabha, Derek O’Brien said: “We respect the judiciary. We welcome its decision. One party will not sleep well for the next few weeks - you all know who they are!”
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, while welcoming the decision, said that it would pave the way for the revival of democracy. He termed electoral bonds as the BJP’s “corruption bond”.
“We welcome this decision,” said Delhi Minister and Aam Aadmi Party leader Atishi. “This is an important step in the transparency of election funding. Otherwise through electoral bonds, it was not known which person was giving funds to which party. It is important for country’s democracy that it is known which person is giving how much money to which political party,” she added, noting that it was important for the citizens of the country to know whether the decisions of the government were driven by voter choice or by those who were funding them.
