Prime Minister Narendra Modi has dismissed the claim that the electoral bond issue caused a setback to his government and said that no system is perfect and any shortcoming could be improved upon. He said that those who are “dancing” over the matter will repent it. He also pointed out that it is due to the electoral bond system put in place by his government that the sources of funding and its beneficiaries could be found out.
What did PM Modi say?
"Tell me what have we done that I should see as a setback? I firmly believe that those dancing over it (bond details) and taking pride in it are going to repent," he said in an interview when asked if the electoral bond details have caused a setback to the ruling BJP.
If a trail is available today, it is because of the presence of bonds, he said, asking if any agency can tell about the sources of funding and their beneficiaries for the polls before 2014, the year he was elected as the prime minister.
"No system is perfect. There can be shortcomings which could be improved upon," he said.
Opposition parties have cited the revelations following the Supreme Court order, which brought all information related to electoral bonds in public domain while terming the anonymous funding practice unconstitutional, to attack the government.
Many firms facing criminal probes have turned out to be big buyers of these bonds.
Biggest donors to BJP
The Election Commission of India (ECI) on March 21 published the complete electoral bond data submitted by the State Bank of India (SBI) on the orders of the Supreme Court (SC). The fresh data includes alpha-numeric numbers that can help match the purchasers of the bonds with the political parties that encashed them. The data also includes bond numbers that would enable donors to be matched with the political parties they donated to.
The BJP, the biggest beneficiary of electoral bonds with donations worth over Rs 6,000 crore in the last four years of the scheme, got funds from several corporates and individuals, including- Megha Engineering, Future Gaming, and Reliance-linked Qwik Supply.
According to data released by the Election Commission on Thursday (March 21), Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering, which won several contracts for infrastructure projects, donated Rs 584 crore to the BJP, Qwik Supply Rs 395 crore, and Future Gaming Rs 100 crore.
The BJP also got Rs 346 crore from Keventers Food Park, MKJ Enterprises and Madanlal Ltd- three firms with the same Kolkata address, Vedanata contributed Rs 226 crore, and Haldia Energy Rs 81 crore.
(With PTI inputs)
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