‘Throwing baby out with bathwater’ — BJP reacts to SC declaring electoral bonds unconstitutional

‘Throwing baby out with bathwater’ — BJP reacts to SC declaring electoral bonds unconstitutional

New Delhi: In its first reaction to Supreme Court’s verdict terming the electoral bonds scheme as unconstitutional, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said it respected the order but also argued that “the baby has been thrown out with the bathwater”.

Taking to X (formerly Twitter), senior BJP leader and national vice-president of the party Baijayant Jay Panda said: “Electoral Bonds were infinitely better than what they had replaced: suitcases of illicit cash. Those suitcases were tainted, always by tax-evasion & often with links to drugs & arms smuggling.”

He added that one must ponder whether citizens’ right to information was better before bonds existed.

“The data on bonds demonstrates comprehensively that no party has faced discrimination, including & especially those who have seen a drastic reduction in public support. But today… ‘the baby has been thrown out along with the bathwater’,” he wrote.

“Was citizens’ right to information somehow better before bonds existed, in the era of suitcases? Was not the system inherently compromised, with suitcase-by-suitcase governance?” he asked.

#ElectoralBonds were infinitely better than what they had replaced: suitcases of illicit cash.

* Those suitcases were tainted, always by tax-evasion & often with links to drugs & arms smuggling

* Bonds addressed the issue of legitimacy (all donors are registered entities under…

— Baijayant Jay Panda (@PandaJay) February 15, 2024

Earlier in the day, senior BJP leader and former Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters in Delhi that while the BJP respected the verdict of the Supreme Court, the party as well as its government at the Centre would be in a position to give a structured reply only after reading the judgement.

Prasad said the Modi government had made several efforts to reform election funding while emphasising on transparency, and the electoral bonds scheme was one such measure.

He also lashed out at the Congress which had alleged that funds received through electoral bonds were in essence a bribe to the BJP. “The parties whose DNA is based on corruption and bribery should not be saying such things,” he said.

The Supreme Court Thursday struck down the electoral bonds scheme of anonymous funding to political parties, terming it “unconstitutional” and ordered the issuing authority — State Bank of India — to disclose the names of buyers and recipients, as well as the value of the bonds issued since the notification of the scheme in 2018.

A five-judge Constitution Bench comprising CJI D.Y. Chandrachud, and Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B.R. Gavai, J.B. Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra ruled that the scheme violated citizens’ right to know about possible quid pro quo between the donor and the political party in whose favour the contribution is made.

Following the verdict, senior BJP leader and spokesperson Nalin Kohli told the media that any order of the Supreme Court had to be accepted and respected.

However, he accused the opposition of politicising the issue.

“But those political parties who are trying to politicise it are doing it primarily on the ground that they have no answer or alternative to Modi ji‘s leadership and the positive work done by his government through which crores of people have benefitted,” he said.

Kohli said the electoral bonds scheme had been introduced by the government to address the issue of use of black money in elections.

(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)