BJP made ‘bribes’ legal via poll bonds: Congress

Party accuses the BJP of using electoral bonds in four ‘patterns of corruption’, including ‘prepaid, postpaid, and postraid bribes’; it reiterates demand for an SCmonitored probe into the scheme

lleging that the electoral bond scheme ensured that “prepaid, postpaid, and postraid bribes” could be routed through regular banking channels, the Congress on Saturday reiterated its demand for a Supreme Courtmonitored investigation into the scheme.

Addressing a press conference at party headquarters, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said that an analysis of recently published State Bank of India (SBI) data has revealed that 38 corporate groups received 179 government contracts and projects worth ₹3.8 lakh crore after donating electoral bonds to the BJP.

Using a Python code on the SBI data, the Congress matched donations with the political parties who received them, he said.

“They [the BJP] cannot make minimum support price (MSP) a legal guarantee for farmers but have made bribes a legal affair,” Mr. Ramesh said.

ACorruption patterns

He identified four patterns of “blatant corruption” in the electoral bonds scheme: Chanda Do, Dhanda Lo [Pay donation, get business] or prepaid bribes; Theka Lo, Rishvat Do [Bag contracts and pay bribes] or postpaid bribes; Hafta Vasooli [Extortion] or postraid bribes; and lastly, Farzi companies, or shell companies.

Mr. Ramesh alleged that under the ‘prepaid scheme’, ₹551 crore was given to the BJP in donations; within three months, contracts and projects worth ₹1.32 lakh crore were given to the donors by the Union government and BJPruled State governments.

Under the ‘postpaid’ category, he alleged that ₹62,000 crore worth of projects were given by the Centre or BJP State governments; within three months of approvals or contracts being signed, these firms paid ₹580 crore through electoral bonds.

‘Pointing out system’ However, the Congress did not reveal the names of the companies that were involved in these contracts or which allegedly donated electoral bonds to the BJP. “We are not blaming the companies but pointing out the system,” Mr. Ramesh said, trying to make the point that the Congress understands the importance of the private sector in raising India’s GDP.

He also alleged that 41 corporate groups have faced a total of 56 raids by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), or the Income Tax department. These corporate groups have given ₹2,592 crore to the BJP, of which ₹1,853 crore was given after the raids against them.

“The Modi government can patent hafta vasooli [extortion],” he said, adding, “We have assembled a complete, verified database of hundreds of contracts, project clearances, ED/IT/CBI raids, and shell companies, all carefully mapped to the database of the BJP’s electoral bond donors.”