‘Boon for democracy’: Former CECS hail top court order

Former chief election commissioners of India on Thursday welcomed the Supreme Court verdict that struck down the electoral bonds scheme, calling the top court's decision a “great boon for democracy” that finally brought closure to a scheme, which “instead of creating transparency in political funding, actually brought about the reverse”.

“Today’s judgment by the apex court is fundamentally crucial as it has finally brought closure to a scheme, which instead of creating transparency in funding to political parties, actually brought about the reverse. There was no way of knowing who had contributed how much and to which party. Hitherto, the only figures that became known, published annually, were the total received by recognised political parties. There was no mention of who had contributed what sums,” said Navin B Chawla, who served as 16th Chief Election Commissioner of India between 2009 and 2010.

He added: “Therefore besides scrapping the scheme altogether, the Supreme Court has also directed that the funds so far made, their beneficiaries and importantly the donors names, will be disclosed within a stipulated time frame ,by the State Bank of India to the Election Commission , which in turn will make this public on its website.”

Former election commissioners SY Quraishi and TS Krishnamoorthy, too, hailed the verdict with the former calling it a “great boon for democracy” and the latter suggesting an alternative “National Election Fund”.

“This will restore people’s faith in democracy. This is the greatest thing that could have happened. This is the most historic judgement that we have got from the Supreme Court in the last five-seven years. It is a great boon for democracy,” said Quraishi, who served as the CEC from 2010–2012.

Krishnamoorthy concurred, saying that both the electoral bonds scheme and the method of funding elections that existed prior to it led to an “obnoxious nexus between corporates and political parties”, which influenced policymaking.

He suggested that the only way to “delink” this nexus was a National Election Fund with 100% tax exemption for both corporate and individual donors to facilitate the public funding of elections in which all parties would be allocated certain sums during polls.

Krishnamoorthy served as the CEC from 2004 to 2005.

This will restore people’s faith in democracy. This is the greatest thing that could have happened.

SY QURAISHI, EX-CEC