MUMBAI – India’s election commission published details of millions of dollars worth of political donations on March 14. This also led to confirmation of the immense financial advantage of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party weeks out from national elections.
Electoral bonds have been a key method of political funding, allowing donors to give anonymously through certificates purchased from the State Bank of India (SBI).
But in February, India’s top court struck down the scheme as unconstitutional, saying it violated the right of voters to know who was financing parties.
Data from March 14 showed that Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was far and away the single biggest recipient from April 2019 to January 2024.
The BJP had received slightly less than 48 per cent of all electoral bonds cashed by parties up to March 2023, amounting to around US$730 million (S$976 million).
Congress, India’s main opposition party, had by contrast received around US$171 million in the same timeframe, or 11 per cent of the total.
Some of India’s top blue-chip companies figure on the list of those who bought bonds, including numerous ones bought in the name of Indian magnate Lakshmi Niwas Mittal, the British-based executive chairman of multinational steel manufacturer ArcelorMittal.
Other donors include Indian mining giant Vedanta and Bharti Airtel, the country’s second-biggest telecommunications company.
More than half of all donations received by political parties since 2018 came in the form of electoral bonds, according to the Association for Democratic Reforms advocacy group.
Critics said the scheme reduced transparency by leaving the public unable to scrutinise whether donors had received political favours.
They also feared it gave the Indian government the power to see who was funding opposition parties by accessing donor details through the state-owned SBI.
The data released on March 14 still does not map electoral bond buyers to recipients, leaving it unclear which individual and corporate donors were funding which parties.
The election authorities are expected to call national polls in the coming days, with Mr Modi and the BJP strongly favoured to win a third term.
Along with the BJP’s opinion polling lead and vastly larger campaign war chest, Mr Modi remains widely popular with the public after a decade in power. AFP
