Union Home Minister Amit Shah recently spoke to India Today, stating his stance on electoral bonds. He claimed that the bonds were introduced to remove black money from politics.
Shah said there is a perception that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has benefited the most from electoral bonds because the party is in power. He criticised Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for saying that the bonds are the world's biggest tool for extortion.
"I want to clear my position in front of the nation. BJP received approximately Rs 6,000 crore worth of bonds, whereas the total worth of bonds were Rs 20,000 crore. Where are the rest bonds that worth around Rs 14,000 crore? I will explain. TMC received Rs 1600 crore, Rs 1400 crore to Congress, Rs 1200 crore to BRS, Rs 775 crore to BJD, Rs 639 crore to DMK."Amit Shah, Union Home Minister
The video was shared on the minister's official X (formerly Twitter) handle.
Shah later went on to say that the BJP has over 300 members of Parliament (MPs) and another 11 crore members working for the party, and had received around Rs 6,000 crore. He further alleged that if the other parties had similar number of MPs, then their collection from electoral bonds would have been much higher than the BJP.
BJP leader RP Singh, while speaking to news agency ANI, repeated the similar claim and said that the opposition got electoral bonds worth Rs 14,000 crore.
An archive of the post can be found here.
(Source: X/Screenshot)
What's the problem with Amit Shah's remarks?: According to the data released by the Election Commission of India (ECI), the total worth of electoral bonds that were issued was approximately Rs 12,000 crore. So, Shah claiming that Opposition parties had received about Rs 14,000 crore worth of electoral bonds contradicts the data available in the public domain.
What Did News Reports Indicate?
The Quint recently highlighted that the BJP received almost 50 percent of the total electoral bonds' amount. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Congress party were the second and third-highest beneficiaries, respectively.
The report was based on the data released by the ECI after State Bank of India (SBI) shared the data of bonds purchased between April 2019 to February 2024. This came after the directive by the Supreme Court.
While we found that the approximate figures quoted by Shah for the amount received by individual parties, the claim of the total amount being Rs 20,000 crore is wrong.
The list of top ten beneficiaries of the electoral bonds.
(Source: The Quint)
As per a Business Standard report, the BJP secured Rs 6,060 crore between 12 April 2019 and 24 January 2024. This essentially meant that the party gained over 47.5 percent of the total bonds encashed during the said period.
It added that TMC received 1,609 crore and Congress about 1,421 crore approximately. This made them the second and third-highest beneficiaries.
The chart shows a breakdown of the amount received by all parties.
(Source: Business Standard/Screenshot)
Ironically, India Today had published a video on their official YouTube channel highlighting that the BJP had received 47 percent of total amount of electoral bonds.
According to the anchor, the data was based on the figures shared by ECI.
The video that was published on 15 March was titled, 'Electoral Bonds: BJP Receives 47% Of Donations, Election Commission's Data Reveals | India Today.'
Based on these reports, the BJP had received around 47 percent of the total amount. This amount, in number, shared by Shah was Rs 6,000 crore approximately. Then, arithmetically the total amount of electoral bonds encashed should come up to around Rs 12,000 crore.
What Did Data From ADR Indicate?
Team WebQoof accessed the data shared by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) on their website, which indicated the total amount received by all political parties through electoral bonds.
The data was taken from the audit reports of all political parties, where figures for the financial year 2023-24 was missing.
According to ADR, the BJP received over 6,500 crore from FY 2017-28 to 2022-23. The Congress party received over 1,100 crore and the TMC received over 1,000 crore during the same period.
Party-wise share of the electoral bonds were approximately 54 percent for BJP and 9 percent for both Congress and TMC.
The data was based on the audit reports of all political parties.
(Source: ADR/Screenshot)
The findings showed the total amount of electoral bonds encashed by political parties during the aforementioned time period as Rs 11,986 crore approximately.
This table shows a tally of around Rs 12,000 crore received through electoral bonds.
(Source: ADR/Screenshot)
We have reached out to Shah's office to seek clarifications about his statements, including the source of the figures he had shared during the interview. This report will be updated as and when we receive a response.
Missing bonds?: A news report by Newslaundry said that the information for 9,159 bonds worth Rs 4,002 crore which were issued between 1 March 2018 to 15 May 2019 has not been disclosed by SBI till now.
Conclusion: It is evident that Union Home Minister Amit Shah's remark about Opposition parties receiving around Rs 14,000 crore worth of electoral bonds is false.
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