V.T. Balram

Here’s a quick first analysis of the Electoral Bonds data disclosure that the SBI put up last night, after weeks of attempting to postpone it until after the election: •Over 1,300 companies and individuals have donated electoral bonds, including over 6,000 crores to the BJP since 2019 So far, the electoral bonds data exposes at least 4 corrupt tactics of the BJP: 1)Quid Pro Quo: There are many cases of companies that have donated electoral bonds, and immediately afterwards gotten huge benefits from the government: a.Megha Engineering & Infra has given over Rs. 800 crores in EBs. In April 2023, they donated Rs. 140 crores, and just one month later, they were awarded the Rs. 14,400 crore Thane-Borivali Twin Tunnel Project. b.Jindal Steel & Power gave Rs. 25 crores in EBs on 7 October 2022, and just 3 days later, they won the Gare Palma IV/6 coal mine, on 10th October 2022. 2)Hafta Vasooli: The BJP’s Hafta Vasooli strategy is simple – raid a target through the ED/CBI/IT, and then seek hafta (“donations”) for the company’s protection. At least 14 of the top 30 donors have been raided. a.Earlier this year an investigation found that after ED/CBI/IT raids, companies were forced to donate to the BJP via electoral trusts. Many of the same companies have donated through EBs, like Hetero Pharma and Yashoda Hospital. b.The IT department raided Shirdi Sai Electricals in December 2023, and in January 2024, they donated Rs. 40 crores through Electoral Bonds. c.Future Gaming & Hotels, has donated over Rs. 1200 crore, making it the largest donor in the data so far. Here is the chronology: 2nd April 2022: ED raids Future, and 5 days later (7th April) they donate Rs. 100 crores in EBs October 2023: IT department raids Future, and the same month they donate Rs. 65 crores in EBs 3)Kickbacks A pattern emerges from the data, where immediately after receiving some handouts from the Central government, companies have repaid the favour through electoral bonds. a.Vedanta got the Radhikapur West private coal mine on 3rd March 2021, and then in April 2021, they donated Rs. 25 crore in Electoral Bonds. b.Megha Engineering & Infra got the Rs. 4,500 crore Zojila tunnel project in August 2020, then donated Rs. 20 crore in Electoral Bonds in October 2020. c.Megha got the BKC bullet train station contract in December 2022, and donated Rs. 56 crore the same month. 4)Money Laundering Through Shell Companies One huge issue with the electoral bonds scheme is that it removed the restriction that only a small percentage of a company’s profits could be donated, paving the way for shell companies to donate black money. There are many such suspicious cases, such as the Rs. 410 crore that has been donated by Qwik Supply Chain Limited, a company whose entire share capital is just Rs. 130 crores according to MoCA filings. Another major issue is missing data •The data provided by SBI only begins in April 2019, but SBI sold the first tranche of bonds in March 2018. A total of Rs. 2,500 crores in bonds are missing from this data. Where is the data of these missing bonds, from March 2018 to April 2019? For instance, in the very first tranche of bonds, the BJP bagged 95% of the funds. Who is the BJP trying to protect? As the analysis of the electoral bonds data continues, many more such cases of the BJP’s corruption will become clear. We also continue to demand unique bond ID numbers, so that we can precisely match donors to recipients.