The anonymity of the donors in the elections will be hidden at the issuance of the electoral bonds. The Election Commission told the supreme court that the EC has no problem in issuing the electoral bonds but they will hamper the anonymity of the donors leading to the reduction in the transparency of the system.
The Election Commission advocate, Rakesh Dwivedi said that they do not doubt the electoral bonds for its legalized donations, but they want transparency that will be affected if the anonymity of the contributions will not be declared judged on the basis of their legitimacy.
The supreme court is hearing petitions against the use of electoral bonds for political funding filed by the NGO Association for Democratic Reforms and Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury. EC said that donations made by the political parties through the electoral bonds for the funding of the elections should not be exempted from the public.
Former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) VS Sampath said that the transparency of the electoral bonds has failed but it has ensured that the political funding should not be motivated by black money.
According to the IANS quote, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that electoral bonds provide a legitimate and transparent method of political funding. He also said that the electoral bonds cover the link between the party and the donor in the same way the electoral trusts brought by the UPA did.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) declared over Rs 553 crore as income from unknown sources during the year 2017-18. Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) stated a report saying that the national parties had declared a total of Rs 689.44 crore as income from unknown sources.
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