-The Hindu Rue the use of unaccounted money in next month’s Assembly elections New Delhi: Activists working for electoral reforms said they were disappointed on Monday when the Supreme Court declined to stay the Electoral Bond Scheme of the government, saying that the anonymous donations to political parties through these bonds could continue for the Delhi Assembly elections next month. A founder of the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), which had filed a...

-Moneylife.in In a historic decision, the Central Information Commission (CIC) has asked the government to reveal names of entities that have requested secrecy of donors identities in the Electoral Bond Scheme. Coming down heavily on the central public information officers (CPIOs) of the department of economic affairs (DEA), department of financial services (DFS), department of revenue (DR), and Election Commission of India (ECI), the central information commissioner, Suresh Chandra issued show cause...

-The Hindu The party recommended that electoral bonds should be issued without any serial number or identification marks. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had pitched for greater anonymity for donors of electoral bonds, according to a letter sent by party general secretary Bhupendra Yadav to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in August 2017 when the scheme was being drafted. This letter was obtained by activist Lokesh Batra through a Right to Information application. The...

-The Hindu If big money entirely funds elections in a secretive way, democracy as we know it will not exist The recent disclosures that the Election Commission (EC) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had expressed reservations about the Electoral Bonds scheme highlight the importance of this issue. In 2017, the then RBI Governor wrote to the then Finance Minister that “allowing any entity other than the central bank to issue...

-CaravanMagazine.in India is often hailed for its democracy, for empowering its poor and ordinary citizens to participate in the electoral process and play a role in shaping the country. This narrative has increasingly come under strain since the Supreme Court, through its March 2003 judgment in Union of India vs Association for Democratic Reforms, made it mandatory for candidates contesting elections to disclose their wealth, educational qualification, and criminal cases pending...