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Electoral Bonds data case: The Election Commission of India on Thursday published the third list of electoral bond data with ‘unique numbers’ that were submitted to the poll body by State Bank of India, earlier in the day. SBI on Thursday filed a compliance affidavit with the Supreme Court of India in revealing all details of the controversial electoral bonds scheme.
This comes after the Supreme Court of India, in a third tongue-lashing to the SBI, said the bank should stop being “selective” and make “complete disclosure” of all details related to the electoral bonds scheme by March 21.
What are unique numbers or bond numbers?
The unique-alphanumeric that were included in the third list published by the Election Commission will give public access to tie the purchaser of the bond to the recipient political party
-The unique numbers will also help public access information regarding the donors, the recipient parties, and the amounts involved in electoral funding
-Experts argue that the absence of alphanumeric details makes it challenging to determine any potential quid pro quo arrangements between the donor and recipient
-Each electoral bond issued by the SBI bears a distinctive alphanumeric code, visible only under specific lighting conditions. This code has the potential to correlate each donation with the political party that received it
-Till now SBI had provided data to ECI in two separate categories: one containing information about donors who purchased bonds, and the other containing details about recipients who encashed them
-However, according to reports, there is a missing link between these two sets of data
-In April 2018, the Quint’s investigation unveiled the presence of hidden alphanumeric numbers on electoral bonds, undetectable to the naked eye
-SBI had told Quint that the alphanumeric number on electoral bonds served as a “security feature,” denying that it was a mechanism to establish a direct connection between individual donors and the political parties
-In April 2019, the government stated that electoral bonds, intended for anonymous political contributions, incorporate a serial number as a counterfeiting deterrent. However, it clarified that this serial number is inaccessible to everyone, including government entities.
-According to Indian Express report, former finance secretary Subhash Chandra Garg, who served as economic affairs secretary during the formulation of the Electoral Bond Scheme in 2017, stated that the unique code on each bond was implemented as a security feature. He stated that this code was not recorded either at the time of sale or at the time of depositing by a political party.
What did SBI withhold from publishing?
State Bank of India informed the Supreme Court that they withheld complete account numbers and KYC of both political parties and electoral bond purchaser as it could compromise the security of the party concerned.
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Published: 21 Mar 2024, 07:10 PM IST
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