Modi highlighted the importance of meritocracy and fair competition within parties, suggesting that a singular family’s perpetual control undermines democratic principles. (X/@BJP4Telangana)
The Prime Minister said nobody knows how much money was spent on elections before 2014 and the funding details are in the public domain now only due to electoral bonds, which have been dubbed as “India’s biggest scam” by the opposition
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that opposition parties, which are making furore over electoral bonds, will surely “repent” and stressed that
there could be shortcomings in the scheme and they can be corrected.
In an interview with Thanthi TV weeks before the Lok Sabha polls, the Prime Minister said nobody knows how much money was spent on elections before 2014 and the funding details are in the public domain now only due to electoral bonds, which have been dubbed as “India’s biggest scam” by the opposition.
“Tell me what have I done to have a setback. I believe those people, who are dancing and feeling proud about it, are going to repent. I want to ask if any agency can tell us how much money was spent on elections before 2014. Modi came up with electoral bonds, which is why you know who took the money and donated it. Today you have a trail. There could be shortcomings and they can be corrected,” he said.
In a landmark verdict delivered on February 15, a five-judge constitution bench scrapped the Centre’s electoral bonds scheme that allowed anonymous political funding, calling it “unconstitutional” and ordered disclosure of data by the Election Commission of the donors, the amount donated by them, and the recipients.
An electoral bond was a money instrument similar to a promissory note, that is payable to the bearer on demand and without interest. It is a process by which an Indian citizen or a corporate entity can fund a political party, which can encash them later.
The government implemented the electoral bonds in 2018. It was introduced by the Narendra Modi-led NDA government in Gazette Notification No. 20 dated January 2, 2018 in order to “cleanse the system of political funding in the country.”
