For Six Years, Anonymous Electoral Bonds Fuelled the BJP's Poll Machine. The Supreme Court Now Tells Us They Are Unconstitutional.
A newsletter from The Wire | Founded by MK Venu, Seema Chishti, Siddharth Varadarajan, Sushant Singh, Sidharth Bhatia, Pratik Kanjilal and Tanweer Alam | Contributing writer: Kalrav Joshi, with additional inputs by Anirudh SK
Snapshot of the day
February 15, 2024
Siddharth Varadarajan
The mother of democracy’s unique contribution to transparency in election finance – the anonymous Electoral Bond – has finally been struck down by the Supreme Court of India as unconstitutional. Cui bono? During the five years from 2018 to 2022-23 – the last year for which data is available – unknown corporations and plutocrats managed to secretly funnel at least Rs 6,564 crore (that’s nearly one billion US dollars) to the Bharatiya Janata Party. The BJP’s take represents a staggering 55% of the Rs
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