Electoral Bonds : Suboptimal Judgement Needs To Be Revised
Rajiv Upadhyay
In the prevalent atmosphere in the country after the Coal ,CWG, Spectrum scam , every wild allegation of corruption is deemed to be true till proven otherwise. No sacred cows are left any more including Prime Minister or president .
Supreme Court’s Judgement on Electoral Bonds has been hailed with out adequate in depth critical examination . The judgement is indeed well intentioned and very well written . But it is a sub optimal judgement which needs to be revised lawfully by the government , preserving the advantages of Electoral Bonds and maintaining credibility of government vis a vis investors and protecting the lawful donors business interests.
The cash donation from black money was the most popular method of political donations earlier. Corporates were scared of seeming to take sides in open donations to political parties . Some very honest corporates wanted to donate legally to political parties as black money donations were often siphoned off by the middle man or treasurer and did not reach the party. Electoral bonds were like Direct Transfer to Bank Account and could be used lawfully only and had to accounted properly . These were superior to cash donations in every way and reduced the hold of black money in elections .
By throwing out these bonds Supreme Court has again made ‘ Black Money ‘ the king in politics.
The main concern about voter’s right is not very practical . When so many MPs with murder and rape charges are given tickets and when a convicted dacoit like Phoolan Devi can be given ticket and win by a large margin in spite of having murdered 20 people in broad day light , courts cannot afford to be mirage chasers . Even if it is shown that Ambani , Adani are the primary buyers of Electoral bonds will it change anything ?
Political party in power will always get more donations , it is an eternal truth . Congress had all the black money in 2013-4 . Now it is BJP’s turn to get Electoral bonds but it saves its president like Bangaru Laxman being caught receiving donations . It is valid for all parties.
Courts also have to protect donors legal business interests also . They bought bonds legally under anonymity conditions to save their business interests. We know how Mayawati nullified constables recruited by Mulayam Singh . It can happen to say huge POSCO investment . India’s credibility as a stable country is affected by such retrospectively applicable judgements . Courts could have made it prospective. Indian economy suffered for many years due to legal excesses done in 2013-15 by stopping mining , nullifying spectrum allocation , coal mine allocations etc . The larger economic interests of the nation also need protection from mirage chasers and unemployed NGOs.
One very bad part of electoral bonds was removal of the earlier restriction of donation limit of seven percent of profit. It was a very well considered provision . By removing this clause, the fine line distinguishing donation from illegal commission being white washed, was removed . Now a political party could officially accept commission/ cuts in big contracts . This was a deplorable modification rightly removed by courts.
Also making political parties depend on cash donations from black money perpetuated black money and gave middle man a big control on party and government . Even foreign spy agencies could exploit our government officials . Freeing government policies from such exploitation was essential.
Even superior Courts now are not immune from pressures from public opinion , media , government agencies like CBI/ED , lawyers who may know shady deals of judges like Ramaswami / Sabharwal or even famous Ambani brothers judgement on gas pricing after several judges reclused themselves was very controversial . Foreign pressures like imposition of WOKE agenda on rabid feminism / LGBT / marital rape or Homosexuality are also a reality. We know the ISRO’s Nambinarayan case .
Under such circumstances we need sober judges as very activist judges can ruin the system . Popular judgements could be used as a shield to cover known weaknesses.
So it is essential that we do not give up the advantages of Electoral bonds and protect the legal business interests of donors. Government has to lawfully seek revision of the judgement either from parliament or Supreme Court .
