New Delhi: Electoral bonds scheme worst corruption scam says Sitaram Yechury

New Delhi : The electoral bonds scheme is the “worst mega corruption scam” in independent India and has led to “mafia-style extortions”, CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury has said. The Left leader, whose Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) was among the petitioners in the case in Supreme Court that led to scrapping of electoral bonds, said their opposition to the scheme is based on principles and that state funding of polls can lead to transparency. “Electoral bonds have turned out to be the worst mega corruption scam in independent India.

Precisely what we had anticipated would happen through these electoral bonds is now being revealed. I had said it would be like mafia-style extortion. That can be seen now with these revelations that have come,” Yechury told PTI.

The CPI-M leader said he had warned that there would be “quid pro quo sweetheart deals” when the scheme was first announced. “Instead of tackling black money or curbing it, you are actually allowing money laundering to be done, whereby you allow black money to be converted into white and legitimately be donated. Companies have bought electoral bonds multiple times more than their annual profits,” he said.

He said shell companies have been used for money laundering and pointed out donations by companies that have been under the net of various probe agencies. “A new thing which has been revealed is that companies that are under the scanner for violating quality controls and norms for production, particularly drug companies, pharmaceutical companies, have used the electoral bond rules to buy their peace and not be prosecuted. And this is dangerous,” he said.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has denied any link between the functioning of investigative agencies, including the ED, and electoral funding to the ruling party, saying these allegations are just assumptions. In its landmark verdict on February 15, the apex court had scrapped the Centre’s electoral bonds scheme that allowed anonymous political funding, calling it “unconstitutional” and ordered their disclosure.

The electoral bonds scheme was introduced on January 2, 2018. Electoral bonds were pitched as an alternative to cash donations made to political parties as part of efforts to bring transparency to political funding.