Electoral
Bonds | The Biggest Scam in History of India?
Hello, friends! You have been
robbed of you money. In fact, every citizen in our nation has been robbed of
their money. This is probably the biggest scam in the history of independent
India. You may think that I am exaggerating things, but that is not the case.
The thing is that this Electoral Bond Scam is not a standalone scam, but a
collection of scams.
The list of scams is so long that
you will be tired of counting. Not only this, it happens to be the biggest
extortion racket in the country. Let's understand what exactly happened in this
video. Before starting the video, I would like to make a small announcement.
We're celebrating Holi now, so on this occasion, both the courses on Dhruv
Rathee Academy will be available at flat 50% off.
For both the ChatGPT course and
Time Management Course, use the coupon code HOLI50 You will get 50% off. But
this offer is valid only till 31st March. The link to the website is in the
description below. If you want to summarise this entire collection of scams in
one line, then you can do it like this. You give me kickbacks, I will give you
business opportunities, and if you don't give me kickbacks, I will trap you
with ED's mechanism.
I have talked about this
"tenders and kickbacks" model in many of my previous videos but now
we have direct evidence of it. It was in 2017 when the Modi government
introduced this Electoral Bonds Scheme and made it a means of collecting
kickbacks for political parties. "Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today
announced the contours of Electoral Bonds for funding of political parties.
" Every action under this
scheme would be hidden from the masses. Which companies pay what amount to
which parties citizens weren't permitted to know this. People who were
following this news back then, had understood that this would lead to a major
financial scandal. Seven years ago, I made a video on this, where I voiced my
concerns.
"22nd March, 2017 The day
Corruption became legal in India. Companies won't need to reveal which
political parties they would be funding." We should thank the Supreme
Court for declaring this scheme to be unconstitutional after 7 years. And all
these scams that took place in these 7 years, are now being revealed gradually.
Recently, in the India Today
conclave, Home Minister Amit Shah openly lied about the Electoral Bonds. He
said that total bonds sold were worth ₹200 billion, out of which BJP got only
₹60 billion. So, who got the remaining ₹140 billion? "The BJP got approximately
₹60 billion through the Bonds. Total bonds sold were about ₹200 billion.
So, where did the Bonds worth
₹140 billion go?" There was a TV news anchor sitting with him, who chose
to remain silent. Either he forgot or he didn't have the courage to fact-check
Amit Shah. As per ECI data, the total bonds issued were not worth ₹200 billion
but of ₹127 billion. The ones encashed between April 2019 and January 2024.
Out of this ₹120 billion, BJP
received ₹60 billion. It is about 47.5%. During the same period, the party that
ranked second on the list was the Trinamool Congress which got Bonds worth ₹16
billion. It is 12.6%. Congress was at the 3rd spot with ₹14 billion,
approximately 11.1% but let me just read out the rest of the list.
4th was BRS with ₹12 billion. 5th
was BJD with ₹7 billion, 6th was DMK with ₹6 billion, YSR with ₹3 billion, TDP
₹2 billion, Shiv Sena with ₹1.5 billion and the other parties RJD, AAP, JDS,
SKM, NCP, all of them got about ₹300 to ₹700 million. After seeing this list,
many BJP politicians and their paid influencers make excuses that BJP is a
national party, with more than 300 MPs, and numerous MLAs, and thousands of
party workers, so them getting so much money should be justified.
And if we calculate the ratio of
money received per MP, then this ratio of BJP is lower than that of other
parties. They claim that this means BJP is not as bad as other parties. *Does
this make any sense?* As I told you earlier, the scam is about providing
business opportunities in exchange for kickbacks.
Or having ED take action against
them in case no kickbacks are provided. But in itself, giving or receiving
political donations is not a scam. Anyone can donate to political parties. But
if they are given any contract in return for their donation, if they are paid
with the people's tax money, and the companies which don't give such donations,
are harassed by the ED, then it becomes a scam, a fraud.
Now think about it, if Vijay
Mallya or Nirav Modi say that because they have large companies, and employ
many people, it's justified that they stole from the banks. Because on a
"per employee fraud" calculation they are not significant criminals.
People don't object to Vijay Mallya earning a lot of money.
There's nothing wrong with
earning money. The objection arises only when public fund is stolen to earn
that money. Similarly, no one has a problem with why BJP accepted political
donations. The problem is that to get these 'donations,' they created a vast
extortion racket, shattered the principles of democracy, and stole the nation's
public funds.
Amit Shah's bold-faced lie was
repeated by the BJP politician R.P. Singh. "In total, there were ₹200
billion worth of Electoral Bonds. Out of this, ₹60 billion went to BJP and ₹140
billion went to the opposition." "Lie, and keep lying." And then
ANI, Dainik Jagran, India Today, they published this lie without checking.
Forget about catching lies, India
Today's headline talked about, Amit Shah blasting opposition. And then these
entities wonder why they are called the government's puppet media. This is why.
Before going into the details of the fraud, let's understand how these
Electoral Bonds worked? Friends, you can basically think of an electoral bond
as a coupon.
The company paid the bank to buy
these coupons. The coupon was then given to the political parties and the
political parties could redeem the coupons. And they could access the money
paid to in the bank. The rule said that if any political party did not encash
the electoral bond they received, if they didn't redeem the coupon, then within
15 days, the money paid to purchase the unclaimed bond would be transferred to
the Prime Minister's Relief Fund.
When this electoral bond scheme
was launched, there was a journalist who decided to investigate this in detail.
And to test this, she bought two electoral bonds. This journalist was Poonam
Agarwal. She went to the SBI's Parliament Branch and on 5th April and 9th April
2018, she bought two electoral bonds.
Both were priced at ₹1,000 each.
She was working for the Quint Media Organisation at that time. You can check
out the video she uploaded on her channel. The buyer's name was not mentioned
on the electoral bond. Neither did it mention any other detail about who bought
it. Both bonds looked to be exactly the same.
"There is no difference
except the date. Written in red here. Here, it is written 5th April and here it
is written 9th April. Apart from these two things, there is no difference
between the bonds." But when she sent one of the bonds for forensic
testing, it was revealed that every bond has a secret Unique Alphanumeric
Number.
This secret number was visible
only under ultraviolet light. This was shocking because this fact revealed
another lie by the Modi government. The government had been claiming that
anyone buying the electoral bonds, would not be identified, their identity
would be hidden. No one would know who bought this bond.
When Miss Agarwal proved this,
the Finance Ministry had to openly acknowledge that there were secret unique
numbers on the bonds. But they also claimed that this number was only a
security feature. And that the donations would not be tracked through this
number and the identity of the buyer could not be ascertained.
The then Finance Minister, the
late Arun Jaitley, used this point as a defense in Parliament's Debate. He
reassured the opposition parties that they don't need to worry, no one would
find out the identity of the donor, or the source of the donations. He said
that their government is so benevolent that they think of even the opposition
while making laws.
But guess what? This was another
lie spewed by the Modi government. "Lie, and keep lying." Retired
Navy Officer Lokesh Batra filed an RTI and he received a file from the Finance
Ministry. Some other records were reviewed by HuffPost India. In all these, the
SBI explained that without recording the serial numbers, it will not be
possible to create an audit trail.
How will the bank know whether a
bond has been forged or not? Someone could take a fake bond to be encashed.
Then in January 2018, a notification was issued that stated in the Section 6(4)
that the SBI has to provide the details of the electoral bond to any law
enforcement agency if they ask for it. If SBI did not keep such details, if the
donor details had to be actually masked, then how would this rule work? This
meant that if ED or CBI wanted they could have easily found out which company
donated which Electoral Bond.
Do you understand its
implications, friends? As we already know, agencies like ED and CBI, have
become the government's puppets. With this, three things were clear. First, the
public was supposed to remain unaware of which political party receives how much
political donations, which companies make political donations, and how much
they pay.
The citizens weren't supposed to
know any information. Second, the opposition political parties weren't supposed
to know which companies gave donations to BJP and how much. They would have
known about the donations they received. And third, the BJP government had the
means to find out everything.
Who is giving political
donations, how much are they paying, and to which political parties. The
government had access to the information about every donating company. For Modi
government, it became a secret weapon against the opposition. And most of the
opposition parties didn't know anything about it until recently.
On 15th February, when the
Supreme Court declared this scheme unconstitutional, it was because of a
petition. A petition filed by the CPI(M) political party and NGOs Common Cause
and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). Advocate Prashant Bhushan was
arguing on their behalf against this scheme. So, these are some of the
organisations and people whom we should thank who led to this scam being
unearthed.
The Supreme Court had a lot to
say about this scheme, but two things were immensely significant. First, the
citizens have the right to know about the quantum of the donations given to
political parties and who makes these donations. This Electoral Bond Scheme
went against the citizen's right to information.
And second, the Supreme Court
expressed its concern about how this scheme was used to get kickbacks. The
court said that these contributions can be classified purely as business
transactions. Companies are donating to get some benefits in return. Based on
all of all this, the Court directed SBI to release the data.
*Show me your account book.*
*Account for the damage you caused to the nation.* In the beginning, SBI came
up with excuses about how it will take 3 months to collate the data, it can be
disclosed only after the elections. But the Court refused to show any leniency
and the data was released within 2 days. Eventually, this data was published on
the website of the Election Commission.
The data published on ECI's
website is in the form of 2 lists. The first list tells us which companies and
persons bought electoral bonds, and how the value of their bonds. And the
second list tells us which political parties encashed the Electoral Bonds and
how much did they get. But SBI was sly and didn't reveal the secret numbers.
Without them, it wasn't possible
to connect the two lists exactly. Once again, they tried to hide information
from the public. Once again, the Supreme Court rebuked SBI for publishing
selectively data. It directed SBI to publish the full data by 21st March. The
other political parties in the country had the list of donors who donated to
them.
They knew about the source of
donation they received. So, 10 political parties revealed their list to the
people. They revealed their data publicly, without waiting for SBI to do so.
These parties included Samajwadi Party, Aam Aadmi Party, National Congress
Party, JD(U), JD(S), DMK, AIADMK, JKNC, a party from Goa, MGP and SDF from
Sikkim.
I would also like to mention that
4 political parties went above and beyond, who never accepted electoral bonds
as a matter of principle. They are CPI, CPI-M, All-India Forward Bloc, and
CPI-ML. These parties can be criticised on other issues, but their stand on
this issue is commendable. The parties which accepted the Electoral Bonds their
leaders claim that they accepted these bonds because they wanted to utilise the
scheme that was already there.
So that their donors do not have
to face any problems. Anyway, merely taking donations does not mean that it is
a scam. "You will say that we benefited from electoral bonds too. But we
are not in the position where we can award contracts, or sell public sector
companies, or extort others using ED and CBI.
" "Bonds will be bought
by rich people. Only the contractors, traders, or industrialists will be rich
enough for this. They'll be the ones to buy these." So, now that you have
understood the theory, now let's get to the practical. Let's talk about the
frauds. In these frauds, three entities are involved.
First, the political party in
power, it can be BJP's central government or any other party that forms the
state government. Second, large companies which made political donations trough
the electoral bond. And third, the common masses, the public. Let's put a box
under them. The box under political party has the political donations.
The box under the company has the
company's money. And the box under the people contain public funds. The money
collected from people as taxes or otherwise. Now imagine if the government
takes money from the citizens' box and puts it in the company's box. And in
return, the company takes money from its box and puts it in the party's box
through electoral bonds.
Would you call this a scam or
not? Obviously, it is a scam. In Haryana, there is a folktale of a Gyani thief
who steals money from the rich and gives it to the poor. Like, Robin Hood. But
scams run under the guise of electoral bonds the poor people, the common masses
were being robbed, and the money was given to the rich.
Let's understand exactly how it
was being done with 3 examples. First tax evasion, the companies which don't
pay taxes properly. Not paying taxes means that money doesn't get to the public
fund box. This means that government employees won't get their salaries on
time. There won't be recruitment for government jobs, the conditions of
government schools and hospitals cannot be improved.
Because the public funds that
were supposed to be used for the welfare of the people aren't coming in. Now in
case, a company is not paying its taxes, what should the government do? Should
it raid the premises of the company? But instead of raiding, think about it, if
the two make a deal. In exchange for giving political donations to their
political party, the government wouldn't take action about the tax evasions.
The company will be given a free
pass. The government will let them continue their illegal activities, and ED
will simply remain quiet. *Try to understand the chronology.* Look at the Top 5
donor companies on the list of electoral bonds. Three of these five companies
are Future Gaming, Megha Engineering, and the mining giant, Vedanta.
ED and the Income Tax Department
had raided all three companies. In fact, when The Quint analysed the top 30
donors it was found that 14 of the Top 30 companies were raided by the
agencies. Now, one possibility is that the companies hadn't done anything wrong,
the companies were working honestly. But in this possibility, the government
did not care whether the company followed the law of not, and they told the
companies to pay up.
Basically, what the government
did is called extortion. This is why Congress politician Rahul Gandhi called PM
Modi, Vasuli Bhai. [Someone who runs an extortion racket.] But the second
possibility could be that the company had actually committed money laundering,
it was involved in illegal activities, and the government found out about the
money laundering, tax evasion, the company stealing public funds, but did not
actually have an issue with it, as long as the company paid a part of the
benefits to the party.
Now some people may say that even
if the government extorts money from such companies it doesn't actually affect
us. The first problem is that government's money is the citizen's money, rules
have been made on how the government should spend that money. Rule 21 of the
General Financial Rules states that a public officer should be as cautious
while spending public money as a sane person would be while spending his own
money.
The government cannot award a
contract for any public project to a company at will. While issuing Tender
Notice, various criteria for eligibility are mentioned. The minimum level of
experience of the company. The past performance of the company. Whether the
company has the technical capability to properly complete the project.
The state of the manufacturing
facilities of the company. The financial position of the company. Only after
evaluating all these, is a contract awarded to a company. To the candidate who
can hand in the best quality of work. The candidate who will charge the
appropriate price for it. They shouldn't be overcharging while the tax money is
being wrongfully utilised.
Now you will remember the tunnel
collapse in Uttarakhand, 41 workers were trapped in it. Do you know which
company was given the contract to build that tunnel? Navayuga Engineering
Company Limited. Between 2019 and 2022, this company bought electoral bonds to
the tune of ₹550 million, Let me tell you another story.
In December 2021, an under-
construction flyover fell in Ahmedabad. This flyover was being built by the
company Ranjit Buildcon. This was the third incident involving the same
company. In the inquiry, it was found that this company had compromised on the
quality of the concrete and construction. But did you know that this company
was given multiple projects by Gujarat's civic bodies.
Vadodara, Rajkot, Surat,
Ahmedabad's Gandhinagar metro rail project were awarded to it. These were the
business opportunities but where is the kickback? According to the list,
between January and July 2023, this company bought electoral bonds worth ₹90 million.
Let's see another example, Pune-based company BG Shirke Construction Private
Limited.
Between January 2023 and January
2024, it purchased electoral bonds for ₹1.18 billion. But one year before this,
in June 2022, an FIR was registered against this company for causing de@th by
negligence. Because at the housing project construction site of this company, 4
people d!ed in an elevator crash. Before this, in October 2018, there was
another incident.
At the construction site of this
company, 4 people lost their lives when they fell from the tower crane. You can
see that a political party doesn't care about your life. As long as they get
their share. *Let them shout if they want to. They'll shout till they get
tired, and then they will forget.
* Look at the company Megha
Engineering. Between 2019 and 2023, It bought electoral bonds to the tune of
₹9.66 billion. Such a huge amount! Almost ₹10 billion! Why would a company want
to donate so much money to a political party? Three more companies were
associated with this. Western UP Power Transmission Company Limited, SEPC
Power, and Evey Trans Private Limited.
If you add up all the electoral
bonds they purchased, it is more than ₹12 billion. What did they get in return?
In June 2019, Telangana's Chief Minister Chandrashekhar Rao inaugurated the
Kaleshwaram Multipurpose Irrigation Project. In February 2024, the CAG
submitted a report which revealed that initially the estimated cost of this
project was ₹810 billion.
But now it costs more than ₹14.7
trillion. In another report, the CAG stated that Megha Engineering was paid
₹51.80 billion in excess for four packages. It included the supply and
commissioning of pumps, motors, and equipment. CAG also stated that apart from
Megha Engineering there were other contractors like L&T and Navayuga
Engineering.
If we look at the combined amount
for all of them these contractors had received at least ₹75 billion in extended
undue benefits. The report also states that the government seemed to be in a
hurry to hand out these projects. 17 different projects worth ₹250 billion were
awarded before receiving the detailed project report.
Not only that, in October 2020,
the National Green Tribunal raised red flags about this project. The NGT said
that the environmental clearance given to this project was illegal. Since this
was happening in Telangana, where the BRS party is in power, so Congress and
BJP both said that this Bahubali project has become a cesspool of corruption.
But, here comes the plot twist.
"The Zojila tunnel..." Here, BJP's Nitin Gadkari is talking about the
Zojila tunnel. It connects Srinagar and Leh. "This was approved by your
government. In this tender, the company which won the contract, 5 entities had
submitted their bids, This was awarded to a company in Hyderabad, Megha
Engineering.
" Multiple companies bid for
it. But in August 2020, a small company from Hyderabad got this contract worth
₹45 billion. Which company? Megha Engineering. Look at another project.
Thane-Borivali Twin Tunnel. Mumbai's MMRDA floated a tender for two packages to
build this tunnel. In April 2023, Megha Engineering purchased electoral bonds
worth ₹1.4 billion.
And in the next month, in May
2023, Megha Engineering was awarded this project worth ₹144 billion. This is
the same company that was raided by the Income Tax Department in October 2019.
But after that, the list clearly shows the billions of rupees of electoral
bonds it bought between 2019 to 2024. And in this time period, one after
another, projects were awarded to it.
Not only by the state government
of Telangana, but also by Modi's central government. In June 2023, according to
this article, this company was given a project worth ₹5 billion by the Defence
Ministry. Friends, everything that I have told you till now, is just the tip of
the iceberg. Apart from this, there is a strange case of a company named Future
Gaming.
A lottery company. When this
company was being raided by central agencies, Finance Minister Nirmala
Sitharaman was tweeting photos of her meeting with the Lottery King's son.
Apart from this, there are some cases where Beef Exporting Companies bought Electoral
Bonds to give donations to the parties. This case should be a wake-up call for
those people who vote for this party for their religious affiliation.
Then there are cases of mining
giants Vedanta, EMIL, GHCL, MSPL, and how they have been accused of bending
environmental rules. There is a case of Qwik Supply Chain with the same
directors as in Mukesh Ambani's company, Reliance. Looking at the list, it is
clear that this company bought electoral bonds worth more than its net profit.
It was paying more in political
donations than it profits. But for now, I think this video is too long already.
So let's talk about these cases in the next episode. If you want me to make a
detailed video of each of these scams, let me know in the comments. Before I
leave, I would like to mention that it's Holi, so Happy Holi to all of you! And
I have a huge offer for you on Holi.
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