New Delhi: A historic decision by the Supreme Court of India has put Modi and his party BJP in trouble ahead of the elections.
According to Indian media, the Supreme Court, in its decision, declared unconstitutional the 7-year-old election funding system of allowing unlimited and anonymous donations to political parties and banned the issuance of new bonds.
A five-member bench headed by Chief Justice DY said in the verdict that a person or a company giving huge donations to political parties can also influence the policy making of the state, so it is also important to get information about them.
The court directed SBI not to issue any more bonds and also directed it to provide the details of the purchasers of the bonds purchased so far and the party to whom the donation was made.
The decision is being seen as a blow to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, which has been the biggest beneficiary of the election funding system introduced in 2017.
Modi’s party received more than half of the bonds worth INR 120.1 billion from the Election Bonds System in March 2023, with a value of INR 65.66 billion.
The system, called electoral bonds, was challenged by the opposition and a civil society group on the grounds that the system deprives people of their fundamental right to know who is donating to political parties.
Under the Election Bonds System, any individual or company can purchase these bonds from the State Bank of India and donate them to any political party.
Individuals and companies bought a total of 165.18 billion Indian rupees ($1.99 billion) in bonds through November 2023, according to the Association for Democratic Reforms, a nongovernmental civil society group that works on election funding in India.
