The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:
The Polit Bureau notes positively the interim order passed by the Supreme Court on the electoral bond scheme initiated by the Modi government.
The PB notes that the changes in the law which was rushed without a proper and comprehensive discussion in the Parliament was aimed at removing the limits of corporate funding of political parties, particularly at the time of elections, while making it completely anonymous. The changes would have made the entire system prone to crony capitalism with a clear basis for quid pro quo with the ruling party. That the government was dead opposed to making funding transparent was clear from the submission of the Attorney General in the apex court when he said: “It is not voters’ concern to know where the money comes from. Transparency cannot be looked as a mantra of the country.
Today’s interim judgment has brought in some degree of accountability by making it mandatory for the political parties to place their collection from electoral bonds and the details thereof to the Election Commission by May 30 in a sealed envelope.
The interim order promised that the seriousness of the issue and its bearing on the very nature of our democracy warrants more in-depth examination.
The Polit Bureau notes positively that the interim order itself demolishes the stance taken by the Prime Minister Modi, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and the BJP, which had pushed this as a money bill for the opaque and secret electoral bonds. The court has clearly stated transparency is the basic principle of electoral funding. People have the right to know which party has received how much and from whom.
The Polit Bureau expresses satisfaction that this legal battle, where the CPI(M) itself is a petitioner, has yielded some positive result as of now and also reiterates its resolve to carry on the battle for making electoral funding completely transparent and free of corporate influence towards breaking the corporate-ruling party nexus.
(Hari Singh Kang)
For CPI(M) Central Committee Office