BJP’s Coffers Grow by 87 Percent After 2024 Elections; Tax Authorities Revoke Non-Profit Status of Reporters’ Collective; Congress is Losing Its Moorings

A newsletter from The Wire | Founded by Tanweer Alam, Sidharth Bhatia, Pratik Kanjilal, Seema Chishti, Sushant Singh, MK Venu, and Siddharth Varadarajan | Contributing writer: Kalrav Joshi, with additional inputs by Anirudh SK

---

Note to readers: here was an inadvertent error in the headline in yesterday’s cable when the word ‘Rights’ was used instead of ‘Riots’. The error is regretted.

---

Dear readers,

If you like our work and want to support us then do subscribe. You can do this via Substack by clicking on the button below.

Those of you who are facing an issue getting the subscription going via Substack, we have a quick fix for you. Please click on the following link to make a payment and start or renew your subscription - https://rzp.io/rzp/the-india-cable

1. Make sure you enter INR 200 for monthly, INR 2000 for an annual subscription, and INR 10,000 for a lifetime subscription to The India Cable

2. Please share your email id in the link above. This is IMPORTANT and is the email where you will receive The India Cable

3. Please give us at least up to 2 business days to activate/upgrade/renew your subscription

4. These are one-time payments and there will be no auto-renewal

5. You can pay using UPI, Credit/Debit Cards (Visa, MasterCard, and Rupay only), Netbanking and Mobile Wallets

Over to Sidharth Bhatia for today’s Cable

---

Snapshot of the day

January 28, 2025

Sidharth Bhatia

In the aftermath of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) coffers have swollen by a staggering 87%, with the party raking in a jaw-dropping Rs 3,967.14 crore in donations in 2023-24 – a sharp jump from the Rs 2,120.06 crore it received the previous year, reports The Indian Express.

But the devil is in the details. According to the Hindutva party’s annual audit report, filed with the Election Commission yesterday, the share of electoral bonds – a tool of shadowy, anonymous political donations – plummeted to 43% of the party’s total contributions. While this might seem like a win for transparency at first glance, the numbers tell a different story. In real terms, the BJP pocketed a mind-boggling Rs 1,685.62 crore via electoral bonds in 2023-24, compared to Rs 1,294.14 crore the year before. Electoral bonds, which were introduced by the Modi government in 2018 under the pretense of “cleaning up” political funding, are now the best way for companies to give anonymous ‘donations’. Not surprisingly, the Supreme Court struck down the scheme in February 2024, calling it unconstitutional and a direct violation of citizens’ right to information under Article 19(1)(a).

Even as anonymous donations filled the BJP’s war chest, the party spent like there’s no tomorrow. Its expenditure on election propaganda alone ballooned from Rs 1,092.15 crore to a staggering Rs 1,754.06 crore. Of this, Rs 591.39 crore was spent solely on advertisements and publicity.

Tax authorities have revoked The Reporters’ Collective’s non-profit status, the news outlet said today in a statement. The authorities, it said, claimed that “journalism does not serve any public purpose and therefore cannot be carried out as a non-profit exercise in India”.