Electoral Bond row: Oppn readies all-out attack after finding 'chink in Modi's armour'

The Modi government may yet be hoping to brazen out the political storm kicked up by the revelations, as was evident in Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement on Friday (March 15). The Opposition parties in the INDIA bloc, however, say that the sheer volume of money that has been funnelled into the BJP’s coffers by numerous companies – many of them with dubious antecedents – through Electoral Bonds, and often within days or months of such donors being raided by some central agency, is “enough to prove that Modi, the self-proclaimed anti-corruption crusader, is, in fact, the most corrupt Prime Minister India has ever had”.

A senior INDIA bloc leader told The Federal that the Opposition conglomerate is also discussing the possibility of launching a joint offensive against the BJP on the Electoral Bonds issue, on Sunday (March 17). A battery of alliance leaders, including Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, DMK chief MK Stalin, NCP founder Sharad Pawar, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, Champai Soren and Kalpana Soren of the JMM, National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah and AAP’s Saurabh Bhardwaj, are expected to converge in Bombay, on Sunday, for the conclusion of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Manipur to Maharashtra Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra (BJNY).

Big rally planned

The BJNY conclusion rally at Bombay’s iconic Shivaji Park, to be held a day after the Election Commission announces the Lok Sabha poll schedule, will also double up as the second joint rally of the INDIA bloc after the massive public meeting that alliance leaders addressed in Patna earlier this month. Sources privy to the preparations for the Shivaji Park rally said the alliance leaders, while raising issues such as growing unemployment, price rise, spiralling communal disharmony, Modi’s alleged patronage to select capitalists and repeated assaults on constitutional precepts and democratic norms that have all been regularly highlighted by the INDIA bloc, could also highlight “the BJP’s mega Electoral Bonds Scam”.

It is learnt that the Congress and leaders from Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray’s factions of the NCP and Shiv Sena, respectively, may also announce their seat-sharing pact for Maharashtra’s 48 Lok Sabha constituencies at or after the Shivaji Park rally.

Sources said INDIA bloc constituents, several of whom are still in the midst of finalising their seat-sharing deals, had begun discussing the possibility of crafting a coordinated and sustained campaign on the Electoral Bonds immediately after the SBI made its first reluctant, and still incomplete, disclosures of donors and beneficiaries earlier this week. “This is the biggest scam the country has ever seen and though the Electoral Bonds scheme was introduced by (late) Arun Jaitley, it is clear that its architect was none other than Narendra Modi. For the last several years, there were demands that details of the bond’s beneficiaries should be made public... now the Supreme Court has cracked the whip and the SBI has been forced to divulge at least part of the details... it is now our duty to make sure that the truth about this scam reaches every voter... the INDIA parties will make sure this happens,” RJD MP Manoj Jha told The Federal.

On Friday, while Sitharaman was rubbishing the Opposition’s insinuations about the Modi government employing the threat of raids by the Enforcement Directorate and other agencies to extort money for the BJP from corporates through Electoral Bonds, Kharge and Rahul launched a coordinated salvo at the Prime Minister.

Largest extortion racket, says Rahul

Addressing a press conference in Bengaluru, Kharge demanded a Supreme Court-monitored probe into the electoral bonds scheme and freezing of the BJP’s bank accounts “until the investigation is complete”. Asserting that the BJP had encashed Electoral Bonds worth over Rs 6,000 crore in the past five years, the Congress president alleged that the saffron party had “looted money through coercion” as it was clear that several companies which had purchased these bonds did so within a short period after being raided by the ED, CBI or the IT department.

Shortly after, Rahul too spoke to the media in Maharashtra’s Bhiwandi. In his characteristic no-holds-barred diatribe against the Prime Minister, Rahul said, “Narendra Modi ran the world’s largest extortion racket in the name of electoral bonds” while also warning probe agencies that whenever there is a regime change at the Centre, those officials who aided the BJP’s alleged “extortion racket” would face “strong and stringent” action. The Wayanad MP also accused the BJP of using money amassed through electoral bonds “to destabilise governments” and break parties such as the Shiv Sena and the NCP.

SBI's next move

Several INDIA bloc leaders said they are now “eagerly awaiting” the SBI’s next reply to the Supreme Court as the bank has been directed to disclose the electoral bond numbers. The disclosure of bond numbers would establish the hitherto unknown link between donors and recipients. The Opposition bloc is also hopeful that the apex court will “take this case to the finish line” as there is still “data pertaining to bonds worth nearly Rs 3000 crore that the SBI has not disclosed as of now”.

“Clearly, there are some companies that the SBI, at the behest of the PMO, is protecting... So far, we have details of bonds that were purchased largely by lesser-known and very dubious companies like Future Gaming, Qwik Supply Chain and others... several companies on the list published so far don’t even have a website, others are companies that have clearly been on the ED and IT department’s radar but the big ones, Adani and Ambani, don’t feature in the list... either they have been very clever in hiding their identity while purchasing the bonds, perhaps through proxy companies, or their details have not been revealed by the SBI; so it is absolutely essential that the Supreme Court makes the SBI disclose everything,” AAP leader Sandeep Pathak told The Federal.

Modi’s Achilles heel

Another INDIA bloc leader said the Electoral Bond details, if woven into an effective poll narrative by the Opposition, could prove to be Modi’s Achilles heel. “I am not saying that issues of unemployment, communal unrest, economic mismanagement or undermining of the Constitution should take the back seat... they are and will remain front and centre of our campaign but we also have to acknowledge that corruption was one charge that did not stick to Modi because earlier issues like Rafale and the Hindenburg Report on Adani were complex matters which were difficult to explain to the voter... Electoral Bond is a clear cut case of quid pro quo and now that the details are out this nexus can be easily explained to the people... if we get our narrative right, we can break the myth of Modi’s corruption-free government that the BJP has carefully built up over the years,” this leader said.