No link between ED raids and political donations to ruling party: FM
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday denied any link between the functioning of investigative agencies, including ED raids, and electoral funding to the ruling party, saying these allegations are just assumptions. «What if the companies gave the money, and after that, we still went and knocked at their doors through ED (Enforcement Directorate). Is that a probability or not...It is an assumption that the ED went and knocked at their doors, and to save themselves they came up with funds. The second assumption is that are you sure that they have given (electoral bonds) to BJP. What if they probably gave to regional parties,» she said while speaking at India Today Conclave.
The finance minister's comments came a day after the Election Commission of India published a list of subscribers of the electoral bonds and funds mobilised by various political parties.
The list provided by State Bank of India, the issuer of electoral bonds, was published after the order of the Supreme Court.
Sitharaman said a political funding mechanism scrapped by the Supreme Court as 'unconstitutional' was an improvement on the past but a more transparent system should be put in place.
«It should be our effort to learn from this. If at all, whenever something comes (law regarding political funds), we have to introduce elements of lessons that we have taken from this to make sure there is transparency and that transparency will have to be progressively better than each earlier system,» she said.
Recalling her predecessor Arun
