Congress Alleges Massive Corruption in Electoral Bonds Scheme, Calls for Supreme Court-Monitored Probe

The Congress intensified its attack on the government on Saturday about the electoral bonds problem, claiming that thousands of crores had been "extorted" from corporate India and stating that an impartial investigation overseen by the Supreme Court is urgently needed.

According to Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh, a preliminary analysis of the data on the "electoral bond scam" revealed the four "corrupt tactics" used by the BJP: "Chanda Do, Dhandha Lo (give donations, get business), Hafta Vasuli (extortion), Theka Lo-Rishvat Do (get contracts after paying bribe), Farzi Company - Dakait Sangni (loot through shell companies)."

Ramesh stated in a post on X that these four patterns of corruption that have surfaced are extremely concerning and that there is an urgent need for an impartial investigation overseen by the Supreme Court.

"Since yesterday, numerous instances of this type of corruption have surfaced. He claimed that "thousands of crores of public assets have been looted and thousands of crores have been extorted and extracted from corporate India."

Ramesh said the infrastructure businesses have donated large sums of money, citing cases that are "concerning".

"For instance, the second-largest donor of Electoral Bonds, Megha Engineering, was involved with the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project in Telangana, labelled the 'world's largest multi-stage lift irrigation project'," he said.

"A crucial component of the project, the Medigadda Barrage, was built in part by Megha. Coincidentally, the Barrage has begun to sink since then, wasting public funds amounting to one lakh billions," he claimed.

For example, Morbi, Gujarat, has suffered a number of these infrastructural breakdowns in recent years, according to Ramesh.

Has the construction of these shoddily constructed structures, bridges, and barrages throughout India been concealed by large donations for electoral bonds? Has 'chanda' gathering endangered the lives of Indians? Ramesh enquired.

The Congress leader also said that after purchasing electoral bonds, numerous businesses were granted green certifications.

To what extent has electoral bonds resulted in the loss of forest land? Which Adivasi communities have had to foot the bill for maintaining the BJP's financial stability?" He stated.

Ramesh stated that pharmaceutical corporations have contributed thousands of crores in electoral bonds, and that several large donors, like Hetero Drugs, have been forced to remove medications from the US market because of contaminants discovered by US regulators.

He questioned whether corrupted medications had been approved for sale by India's pharmaceutical regulators in return for election bonds.

With around Rs 1,400 crores contributed to electoral bonds, Future Gaming & Hotels is the biggest donor. It has come to light that Future's owner, who has faced numerous CBI issues, visited Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in April 2023 despite being a BJP member himself, according to Ramesh.

He questioned, How many more fake companies are there on the list with close BJP ties?

"In addition to these corrupt practices that have emerged through the electoral bond scam, this morning, news has come out of a US investigation into Mr Modi's favourite business group," he stated.

According to Ramesh, the Congress has already brought up 100 issues regarding the "Modani Scam" in its "Hum Adani Ke Hain Kaun" series.

"Between the Modani Scam and the Electoral Bond Scam, the Prime Minister has scaled the Mount Everest of corruption," he stated.

"Governance in Modi's India has been about 'Jitna chanda, Utna haq'," Ramesh stated.

The Congress, which claimed to have received 50% of the funds received through the electoral bonds system, had on Friday urged that the Supreme Court launch a high-level investigation into the ruling BJP and freeze its bank accounts in response to allegations of corruption.

Leading purchasers of the now-scrapped electoral bonds for political donations included steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, billionaire Sunil Bharti Mittal's Airtel, Anil Agarwal's Vedanta, ITC, Mahindra and Mahindra, and a lesser-known Future Gaming and Hotel Services.

The information was supplied with the poll panel on March 12 by the State Bank of India (SBI), the authorized seller of electoral bonds, in accordance with a Supreme Court decision.

The Election Commission uploaded the data to its website a day earlier on March 14; but, the top court granted it until 5 p.m. on March 15.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Press Time staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.