Need for SC-monitored probe pressing: Cong on electoral bonds issue

PTI, Mar 16, 2024, 10:30 AM IST

Stepping up its attack on the government over the electoral bonds issue, the Congress on Saturday alleged that thousands of crores have been ”extorted” from corporate India and asserted that the need for a Supreme Court-monitored independent probe is pressing.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the BJP’s four ”corrupt tactics” — ”Chanda Do, Dhandha Lo (give donations, get business), Hafta Vasuli (extortion), Theka Lo-Rishvat Do (get contracts after paying bribe), Farzi Company – Dakait Sangni (loot through shell companies) — emerged after a quick first analysis of the data on the ”electoral bond scam”.

These four patterns of corruption that have emerged are of grave concern and the need for a Supreme Court-monitored independent probe is pressing, Ramesh said in a post on X.

”In fact, since yesterday, we have seen dozens of examples of these kinds of corruption emerge. Thousands of crores have been extorted and extracted from corporate India, and thousands of crores of public assets have been looted,” he alleged.

Citing examples that are ”concerning”, Ramesh said the infrastructure companies have donated vast sums of money.

”For instance, the second-largest donor of Electoral Bonds, Megha Engineering, was involved with the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project in Telangana, labelled the ‘world’s largest multi-stage lift irrigation project’,” he claimed.

”Megha constructed some part of the Medigadda Barrage, a key part of the project. It so happens that the Barrage has since started sinking, putting waste to 1 lakh crores worth of taxpayers money,” he alleged.

The last few years have seen quite a few instances of such infrastructure failures in Morbi, Gujarat, for instance, Ramesh said.

”Have these shoddily-built barrages, buildings, and bridges all over India, been covered up with some hefty electoral bond donations? Have Indians’ lives been put at risk for ‘chanda’ collection?” Ramesh asked.

The Congress leader also alleged that many companies have obtained green clearances after buying electoral bonds.

”How much forest land has been lost to electoral bonds? Which Adivasi communities have had to bear the burden of keeping the BJP’s coffers full?” he said.

Noting that pharma companies have given thousands of crores in electoral bonds, Ramesh said some big donors, such as Hetero Drugs, have had to recall medicines from the US market due to impurities found by the American regulators.

Have India’s medicine regulators allowed tainted medicines in the market in exchange for electoral bonds, he asked.

”The largest electoral bond donor, at almost Rs 1,400 crores, is Future Gaming & Hotels. It turns out that the son of the owner of Future is a member of the BJP and that the owner himself met Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in April 2023 despite facing many CBI cases,” Ramesh claimed.

How many more fraudulent companies on the list have close BJP links, he asked.

”In addition to these corrupt practices that have emerged through the electoral bond scam, this morning, news has come out of an US investigation into Mr Modi’s favourite business group,” he said.

The Congress had earlier raised 100 questions on the ”Modani Scam” in its ‘Hum Adani Ke Hain Kaun’ series, Ramesh said.

”Between the Modani Scam and the Electoral Bond Scam, the Prime Minister has scaled the Mount Everest of corruption,” he said.

”Governance in Modi’s India has been about ‘Jitna chanda, Utna haq’,” Ramesh said.

The Congress had on Friday demanded a high-level probe by the Supreme Court against the ruling BJP and freezing of its bank accounts for alleged corruption in the electoral bonds scheme, as it claimed the party got 50 per cent of the money received through these bonds.

Steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, billionaire Sunil Bharti Mittal’s Airtel, Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta, ITC, Mahindra and Mahindra, and a lesser-known Future Gaming and Hotel Services were among the prominent buyers of the now-scrapped electoral bonds for making political donations.

Following a Supreme Court directive, the State Bank of India (SBI), which was the authorised seller of electoral bonds, shared the data with the poll panel on March 12.

The top court had given the Election Commission time till 5 pm on March 15 to upload the data on its website which it did a day earlier on March 14.