After the elections, the BJP wants SBI to provide electoral bond details: Kharge

The Congress unleashed a broadside against the Center one day after the State Bank of India (SBI) petitioned the Supreme Court for further time to provide information on electoral bonds, claiming that “the Modi government is using SBI as a shield to hide its dubious dealings.”

 

The SBI petitioned the Supreme Court on Monday, requesting an extension until June 30 to reveal the specifics of every election bond that political parties have redeemed. The Supreme Court (SC) ordered the SBI to provide the information to the Election Commission of India (EC) by March 6 after the cancellation of the electoral bond program last week.

Mallikarjun Kharge, the head of the Congress, said that the Modi administration was attempting to utilize the SBI to overturn the Supreme Court’s ruling. “The Modi government’s “black money conversion plan” of electoral bonds was declared “illegal,” “unconstitutional,” and “violative of RTI” by the Supreme Court, which also ordered the SBI to provide donor information by March 6,” he said.

Some people are skeptical about Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge SBI’s request for four additional months to collect data on electoral bonds.
He said that the Lok Sabha’s term ends on June 16 and that “the BJP wants it to be done after the Lok Sabha elections by June 30.”

“Isn’t the government conveniently hiding the BJP’s shady dealings, where contracts of highways, ports, airports, and power plants were handed over to the PM’s cronies in lieu of these opaque electoral bonds?” Kharge said, alleging that the BJP was the primary beneficiary of the “fraudulent” electoral bonds scheme. According to experts, it is possible to reveal and match the 44,434 automatic donor data inputs in a matter of just one day. So why does SBI need an additional four months to compile this data?

At a news conference, Congress spokeswoman Supriya Shrinate expressed a similar opinion, stating that the BJP has been “afraid” that its “unholy nexus with select corporates” will be revealed as soon as the contributors’ identities are made public.

Shrinate questioned why it takes five months for the greatest computerized bank in the nation to supply information regarding electoral bonds when it can be obtained in five minutes with a single click.

SBI purchased software to issue EBs for Rs 1.5 crore: RTI

The SBI spent Rs 60,43,005 on “IT system development for floating of electoral bonds” and Rs 60,43,005 on “IT system development,” according to information obtained by RTI activist Lokesh Batra. The total sum of “operational costs” was Rs 89,72,338. The launching of EBs came at a net cost of Rs 1,50,15,338.

Mallikarjun Kharge, the president of Congress, explained: Why SBI requests four months to provide information on electoral bonds