The Biggest Scam in Independent India
Hello, friends! You have been robbed of your money. In fact, every citizen in our nation has been robbed of their money. This is probably the biggest scam in the history of independent India. You may think that I am exaggerating things, but that is not the case. The thing is that this Electoral Bond Scam is not a standalone scam, but a collection of scams. The list of scams is so long that you will be tired of counting. Not only this, it happens to be the biggest extortion racket in the country.
An Introduction to the Electoral Bonds Scheme
Let’s understand what exactly happened in this video. Before starting the video, I would like to make a small announcement. We’re celebrating Holi now, so on this occasion, both the courses on Dhruv Rathee Academy will be available at flat 50% off. For both the ChatGPT course and Time Management Course, use the coupon code HOLI50 You will get 50% off. But this offer is valid only till 31st March. The link to the website is in the description below.
If you want to summarise this entire collection of scams in one line, then you can do it like this. You give me kickbacks, I will give you business opportunities, and if you don’t give me kickbacks, I will trap you with ED’s mechanism. I have talked about this “tenders and kickbacks” model in many of my previous videos but now we have direct evidence of it.
The Unveiling of the Scam
It was in 2017 when the Modi government introduced this Electoral Bonds Scheme and made it a means of collecting kickbacks for political parties. Every action under this scheme would be hidden from the masses. Which companies pay what amount to which parties citizens weren’t permitted to know this. People who were following this news back then, had understood that this would lead to a major financial scandal.
Seven years ago, I made a video on this, where I voiced my concerns. “22nd March, 2017 The day Corruption became legal in India. Companies won’t need to reveal which political parties they would be funding.” We should thank the Supreme Court for declaring this scheme to be unconstitutional after 7 years. And all these scams that took place in these 7 years, are now being revealed gradually.
The Lies of the Government
Recently, in the India Today conclave, Home Minister Amit Shah openly lied about the Electoral Bonds. He said that total bonds sold were worth ₹200 billion, out of which BJP got only ₹60 billion. So, who got the remaining ₹140 billion? There was a TV news anchor sitting with him, who chose to remain silent. Either he forgot or he didn’t have the courage to fact-check Amit Shah.
As per ECI data, the total bonds issued were not worth ₹200 billion but of ₹127 billion. The ones encashed between April 2019 and January 2024. Out of this ₹120 billion, BJP received ₹60 billion. It is about 47.5%. During the same period, the party that ranked second on the list was the Trinamool Congress which got Bonds worth ₹16 billion. It is 12.6%. Congress was at the 3rd spot with ₹14 billion, approximately 11.1% but let me just read out the rest of the list. 4th was BRS with ₹12 billion. 5th was BJD with ₹7 billion, 6th was DMK with ₹6 billion, YSR with ₹3 billion, TDP ₹2 billion, Shiv Sena with ₹1.5 billion and the other parties RJD, AAP, JDS, SKM, NCP, all of them got about ₹300 to ₹700 million.
The Justification of the Scam
After seeing this list, many BJP politicians and their paid influencers make excuses that BJP is a national party, with more than 300 MPs, and numerous MLAs, and thousands of party workers, so them getting so much money should be justified. And if we calculate the ratio of money received per MP, then this ratio of BJP is lower than that of other parties. They claim that this means BJP is not as bad as other parties.
As I told you earlier, the scam is about providing business opportunities in exchange for kickbacks. Or having ED take action against them in case no kickbacks are provided. But in itself, giving or receiving political donations is not a scam. Anyone can donate to political parties. But if they are given any contract in return for their donation, if they are paid with the people’s tax money, and the companies which don’t give such donations, are harassed by the ED, then it becomes a scam, a fraud.
Now think about it, if Vijay Mallya or Nirav Modi say that because they have large companies, and employ many people, it’s justified that they stole from the banks. Because on a “per employee fraud” calculation they are not significant criminals. People don’t object to Vijay Mallya earning a lot of money. There’s nothing wrong with earning money. The objection arises only when public fund is stolen to earn that money.
Similarly, no one has a problem with why BJP accepted political donations. The problem is that to get these ‘donations,’ they created a vast extortion racket, shattered the principles of democracy, and stole the nation’s public funds. Amit Shah’s bold-faced lie was repeated by the BJP politician R.P. Singh. And then ANI, Dainik Jagran, India Today, they published this lie without checking. Forget about catching lies, India Today’s headline talked about, Amit Shah blasting opposition. And then these entities wonder why they are called the government’s puppet media. This is why.
The Hidden Secrets of Electoral Bonds
Before going into the details of the fraud, let’s understand how these Electoral Bonds worked? Friends, you can basically think of an electoral bond as a coupon. The company paid the bank to buy these coupons. The coupon was then given to the political parties and the political parties could redeem the coupons and they could access the money paid to in the bank.
The rule said that if any political party did not encash the electoral bond they received, if they didn’t redeem the coupon, then within 15 days, the money paid to purchase the unclaimed bond would be transferred to the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund. When this electoral bond scheme was launched, there was a journalist who decided to investigate this in detail. And to test this, she bought two electoral bonds. This journalist was Poonam Agarwal. She went to the SBI’s Parliament Branch and on 5th April and 9th April 2018, she bought two electoral bonds. Both were priced at ₹1,000 each. She was working for the Quint Media Organisation at that time. You can check out the video she uploaded on her channel. The buyer’s name was not mentioned on the electoral bond. Neither did it mention any other detail about who bought it. Both bonds looked to be exactly the same.
But when she sent one of the bonds for forensic testing, it was revealed that every bond has a secret Unique Alphanumeric Number. This secret number was visible only under ultraviolet light. This was shocking because this fact revealed another lie by the Modi government. The government had been claiming that anyone buying the electoral bonds, would not be identified, their identity would be hidden. No one would know who bought this bond. When Miss Agarwal proved this, the Finance Ministry had to openly acknowledge that there were secret unique numbers on the bonds. But they also claimed that this number was only a security feature. And that the donations would not be tracked through this number and the identity of the buyer could not be ascertained. The then Finance Minister, the late Arun Jaitley, used this point as a defense in Parliament’s Debate. He reassured the opposition parties that they don’t need to worry, no one would find out the identity of the donor, or the source of the donations. He said that their government is so benevolent that they think of even the opposition while making laws. But guess what? This was another lie spewed by the Modi government.
Retired Navy Officer Lokesh Batra filed an RTI and he received a file from the Finance Ministry. Some other records were reviewed by HuffPost India. In all these, the SBI explained that without recording the serial numbers, it will not be possible to create an audit trail. How will the bank know whether a bond has been forged or not? Someone could take a fake bond to be encashed. Then in January 2018, a notification was issued that stated in the Section 6(4) that the SBI has to provide the details of the electoral bond to any law enforcement agency if they ask for it. If SBI did not keep such details, if the donor details had to be actually masked, then how would this rule work? This meant that if ED or CBI wanted they could have easily found out which company donated which Electoral Bond. Do you understand its implications, friends? As we already know, agencies like ED and CBI, have become the government’s puppets.
The Scam Unveiled and the Supreme Court’s Verdict
With this, three things were clear. First, the public was supposed to remain unaware of which political party receives how much political donations, which companies make political donations, and how much they pay. The citizens weren’t supposed to know any information. Second, the opposition political parties weren’t supposed to know which companies gave donations to BJP and how much. They would have known about the donations they received. And third, the BJP government had the means to find out everything. Who is giving political donations, how much are they paying, and to which political parties. The government had access to the information about every donating company. For Modi government, it became a secret weapon against the opposition. And most of the opposition parties didn’t know anything about it until recently.
On 15th February, when the Supreme Court declared this scheme unconstitutional, it was because of a petition. A petition filed by the CPI(M) political party and NGOs Common Cause and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). Advocate Prashant Bhushan was arguing on their behalf against this scheme. So, these are some of the organisations and people whom we should thank who led to this scam being unearthed.
The Supreme Court had a lot to say about this scheme, but two things were immensely significant. First, the citizens have the right to know about the quantum of the donations given to political parties and who makes these donations. This Electoral Bond Scheme went against the citizen’s right to information. And second, the Supreme Court expressed its concern about how this scheme was used to get kickbacks. The court said that these contributions can be classified purely as business transactions. Companies are donating to get some benefits in return. Based on all of all this, the Court directed SBI to release the data.
The Revelation of the Data
In the beginning, SBI came up with excuses about how it will take 3 months to collate the data, it can be disclosed only after the elections. But the Court refused to show any leniency and the data was released within 2 days. Eventually, this data was published on the website of the Election Commission.
The data published on ECI’s website is in the form of 2 lists. The first list tells us which companies and persons bought electoral bonds, and how the value of their bonds. And the second list tells us which political parties encashed the Electoral Bonds and how much did they get. But SBI was sly and didn’t reveal the secret numbers. Without them, it wasn’t possible to connect the two lists exactly. Once again, they tried to hide information from the public. Once again, the Supreme Court rebuked SBI for publishing selectively data. It directed SBI to publish the full data by 21st March.
The other political parties in the country had the list of donors who donated to them. They knew about the source of donation they received. So, 10 political parties revealed their list to the people. They revealed their data publicly, without waiting for SBI to do so. These parties included Samajwadi Party, Aam Aadmi Party, National Congress Party, JD(U), JD(S), DMK, AIADMK, JKNC, a party from Goa, MGP and SDF from Sikkim. I would also like to mention that 4 political parties went above and beyond, who never accepted electoral bonds as a matter of principle. They are CPI, CPI-M, All-India Forward Bloc, and CPI-ML. These parties can be criticised on other issues, but their stand on this issue is commendable.
The parties which accepted the Electoral Bonds their leaders claim that they accepted these bonds because they wanted to utilise the scheme that was already there. So that their donors do not have to face any problems. Anyway, merely taking donations does not mean that it is a scam.
The Connection to Scams and Extortion
So, now that you have understood the theory, now let’s get to the practical. Let’s talk about the frauds. In these frauds, three entities are involved. First, the political party in power, it can be BJP’s central government or any other party that forms the state government. Second, large companies which made political donations trough the electoral bond. And third, the common masses, the public.
Now imagine if the government takes money from the citizens’ box and puts it in the company’s box. And in return, the company takes money from its box and puts it in the party’s box through electoral bonds. Would you call this a scam or not? Obviously, it is a scam. Scams run under the guise of electoral bonds the poor people, the common masses were being robbed, and the money was given to the rich.
Examples of Scams and Corruption
Let’s understand exactly how it was being done with 3 examples:
Tax Evasion and Kickbacks
First tax evasion, the companies which don’t pay taxes properly. Not paying taxes means that money doesn’t get to the public fund box. This means that government employees won’t get their salaries on time. There won’t be recruitment for government jobs, the conditions of government schools and hospitals cannot be improved. Because the public funds that were supposed to be used for the welfare of the people aren’t coming in.
Now in case, a company is not paying its taxes, what should the government do? Should it raid the premises of the company? But instead of raiding, think about it, if the two make a deal. In exchange for giving political donations to their political party, the government wouldn’t take action about the tax evasions. The company will be given a free pass. The government will let them continue their illegal activities, and ED will simply remain quiet.
Look at the Top 5 donor companies on the list of electoral bonds. Three of these five companies are Future Gaming, Megha Engineering, and the mining giant, Vedanta. ED and the Income Tax Department had raided all three companies. In fact, when The Quint analysed the top 30 donors it was found that 14 of the Top 30 companies were raided by the agencies.
Corruption in Government Contracts
Now you will remember the tunnel collapse in Uttarakhand, 41 workers were trapped in it. Do you know which company was given the contract to build that tunnel? Navayuga Engineering Company Limited. Between 2019 and 2022, this company bought electoral bonds to the tune of ₹550 million.
In December 2021, an under-construction flyover fell in Ahmedabad. This flyover was being built by the company Ranjit Buildcon. This was the third incident involving the same company. In the inquiry, it was found that this company had compromised on the quality of the concrete and construction. But did you know that this company was given multiple projects by Gujarat’s civic bodies. Vadodara, Rajkot, Surat, Ahmedabad’s Gandhinagar metro rail project were awarded to it.
These were the business opportunities but where is the kickback? According to the list, between January and July 2023, this company bought electoral bonds worth ₹90 million.
Unjustified Projects and Undue Benefits
Let’s see another example, Pune-based company BG Shirke Construction Private Limited. Between January 2023 and January 2024, it purchased electoral bonds for ₹1.18 billion. But one year before this, in June 2022, an FIR was registered against this company for causing death by negligence. Before this, in October 2018, there was another incident. At the construction site of this company, 4 people lost their lives when they fell from the tower crane.
Now you can see that a political party doesn’t care about your life. As long as they get their share. Look at the company Megha Engineering. Between 2019 and 2023, It bought electoral bonds to the tune of ₹9.66 billion. Such a huge amount! Almost ₹10 billion! Why would a company want to donate so much money to a political party? Three more companies were associated with this. Western UP Power Transmission Company Limited, SEPC Power, and Evey Trans Private Limited. If you add up all the electoral bonds they purchased, it is more than ₹12 billion.
In June 2019, Telangana’s Chief Minister Chandrashekhar Rao inaugurated the Kaleshwaram Multipurpose Irrigation Project. In February 2024, the CAG submitted a report which revealed that initially the estimated cost of this project was ₹810 billion. But now it costs more than ₹14.7 trillion. In another report, the CAG stated that Megha Engineering was paid ₹51.80 billion in excess for four packages. It included the supply and commissioning of pumps, motors, and equipment. CAG also stated that apart from Megha Engineering there were other contractors like L&T and Navayuga Engineering.
The Need for Further Investigation
These examples are just the tip of the iceberg. There are many more cases of scams and corruption involving electoral bonds. A lottery company, beef exporting companies, mining giants, and many more have been accused of bending rules, evading taxes, and receiving undue benefits.
If you want me to make a detailed video of each of these scams, let me know in the comments. For now, let us not forget the importance of this issue and the impact it has on our democracy and the well-being of the common masses.
The truth of electoral bonds is a dark and disturbing reality. It is a scam that has robbed the citizens of their hard-earned money and undermined the principles of democracy. The government’s lies and cover-ups have been exposed, and it is time for accountability and justice. The Supreme Court’s verdict has shed light on the extent of this scam and the need for transparency and fairness in our political system. It is up to us, as responsible citizens, to demand answers and take a stand against corruption and malpractice. Only then can we hope for a brighter and more honest future for our nation.
Before I leave, I would like to mention that it’s Holi, so Happy Holi to all of you! And I have a huge offer for you on Holi. Both my courses on Dhruv Rathee Academy, ChatGPT course and Time Management course, both are available at 50% off. Use coupon code HOLI50 HOLI50 Those of you who haven’t been able to buy these courses yet, this is a great opportunity for them. This offer will be available only till 31st March. So do check it out. Both courses are immensely useful. The ChatGPT course is in Hindi with English subtitles, but the one on Time Management is only in English. The link to the website is in the description. Or you can scan these QR codes. If you have not understood the importance of ChatGPT and Artificial Intelligence in today’s world, then do watch this video by clicking here. Thank you very much!
FAQs on Electoral bonds
1. What is the eligibility criteria for electoral bonds?
- Electoral bonds can be purchased by a citizen of India or a body incorporated in India. However, only political parties registered under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (43 of 1951) and which have secured not less than one percent of the votes polled in the last general election to the House of the People or the Legislative Assembly of the State, shall be eligible to receive electoral bonds.
2. What are electoral bonds notes?
- Electoral bonds are financial instruments that resemble promissory notes. They are used to make donations to political parties. These bonds are issued by notified banks and can be purchased by any eligible person or organization to make donations to registered political parties.
3. Why were electoral bonds introduced?
- Electoral bonds were introduced to bring transparency and accountability to political funding in India. The government aimed to curb the use of black money in political donations and promote clean and legitimate financing of political parties.
4. How are electoral bonds and electoral trust related?
- Electoral bonds are often purchased by individuals or corporations and then donated to political parties through electoral trusts. Electoral trusts act as intermediaries between donors and political parties, facilitating the process of political funding.
5. Are electoral bonds taxable?
- No, electoral bonds are not taxable. However, any income accruing to political parties from the issuance and encashment of electoral bonds is exempt from income tax under Section 13A of the Income Tax Act, 1961.
6. What are the benefits of electoral bonds?
- Electoral bonds offer several benefits, including increased transparency in political funding, reduced reliance on cash donations, enhanced accountability of political parties, and a more structured approach to financing election campaigns.
7. What are some common questions about electoral bonds?
- Common questions about electoral bonds include queries about their purchase process, the anonymity of donors, the utilization of funds by political parties, and the impact of electoral bonds on electoral transparency.
8. What is the maximum limit of electoral bonds that can be purchased?
- There is no maximum limit on the purchase of electoral bonds. However, the minimum denomination of an electoral bond is fixed at Rs. 1,000, and they are issued in multiples of Rs. 1,000, Rs. 10,000, Rs. 1,00,000, Rs. 10,00,000, and Rs. 1,00,00,000.
Disclaimer
Please note: This blog contains information about past Holi offers on Dhruv Rathi Academy. For the latest offers, please refer to his current videos. The purpose of this blog is to provide information about an ongoing issue regarding the Indian government's policies.