Electoral bonds: CEC Rajiv Kumar says, ‘In democracy, there is no scope for hiding things’
PTI reported Kumar as saying. Also Read: Electoral Bond Case: Here's what the SC told SBI about unique number In its landmark verdict on February 15, the top court had scrapped the Centre's electoral bonds scheme that allowed anonymous political funding, calling it “unconstitutional" and ordered disclosure by the EC of donors, the amount donated by them and the recipients. Kumar said, “The unaccounted money which is used in the elections...
during the elections we are very particular to control it but how do we also control the donations in the unaccounted form is something which the entire nation needs to work together... the donor's privacy is also protected so he is not harassed, how the money is channelised and how it is more and more white." The CEC expressed confidence that a “better" system will evolve. Also Read: Electoral Bonds not perfect but better, it is at least transparent, says FM Nirmala Sitharaman “In the digital age...
it should be very very low cash economy... therefore one has to think of it and I am sure a better system will evolve," Kumar added. The CEC said that the Election Commission has made it compulsory for all political parties to inform it about the contributions they are receiving.
The parties are also supposed to declare how much they have collected and how much they have spent in the annual accounts. “Also after every election they are supposed to give us an account of what they have spent during the particular action...we also publish this on the website of the Commission for everyone to know what is happening," he said. In compliance with the Supreme Court's order, the State Bank of India (SBI), the authorized distributor of electoral bonds, provided the data to the Election Commission
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