'Historic' and in interest of clean democracy: Former CEC Krishnamurthy on SC verdict

Bengaluru, Feb 15 (PTI) Former Chief Election Commissioner T S Krishnamurthy termed as "historic" the Supreme Court verdict on Thursday annulling the electoral bonds scheme for political funding, and said it's in the interest of a clean democracy. Speaking to PTI, Krishnamurthy said he entirely agreed with the judgment, noting that he had made public statements in the past that the electoral bonds scheme is not right for transparency in political funding.

In fact, Krishnamurthy said, the scheme is not at all the right method, though it was claimed that it is promoting transparency because it goes through the banking channel. "But the origin of the funding and name of the donor are not known. And how do you know if it's clean money or dirty money; it's not known," he pointed out.

"It is a historic judgment, it's in the interest of a clean democracy. I only hope that the political parties will learn their lessons," Krishnamurthy added. PTI