Oppn hails SC order, terms it victory for transparency and accountability

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Monday hailed the tough stand taken by the Supreme Court while dismissing the plea of the State Bank of India (SBI) seeking an extension to furnish electoral bond details.

Former party chief and senior leader Rahul Gandhi said those who came to power on the promise of bringing black money back from Swiss banks in 100 days did whatever they could to hide the data of their own bank from the Supreme Court.

Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court ordered the SBI to disclose the details of electoral bonds to the Election Commission by close of business hours on March 12. A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud also directed the EC to publish the details on March 15.

The bench, however, said it had not directed the bank to match the details of donors and donee with other information. The SBI has to just open the sealed cover, collate the details and give the information to the EC, it said.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge alleged that after the SBI asked for four-and-a-half months to publish the electoral bond details, it became clear that the Narendra Modi government was making every possible effort to cover up its dark deeds.

“With the Supreme Court’s decision, the country will soon come to know who donated to the BJP through electoral bonds. This is the first step in exposing the corruption, scams and transactions of the Modi government,” Kharge said in a post in Hindi on ‘X’.

“Even now, the country will not find out for which contracts the select capitalist donors of the BJP were giving donations to the Modi government and the Supreme Court should give appropriate directions for that,” he said.

“The Supreme Court’s decision is a victory for transparency, accountability, and a level-playing field in democracy,” the Congress president said.

Rahul Gandhi too attacked the government over the electoral bonds issue, saying, “Narendra Modi’s ‘donation business’ is about to be exposed!”

“Electoral Bonds will prove to be the biggest scam in Indian history and will reveal the real face of Narendra Modi in front of the country by exposing the nexus between corrupt industrialists and the government,” the former Congress chief said in a post in Hindi on ‘X’.

“The chronology is clear — donate and take business; donate and take protection,” Gandhi added. He alleged that the Modi government showered blessings on those who donated and imposed tax burdens on the general public.

In a post on ‘X’, Congress general secretary, organisation, K C Venugopal, said: “The Supreme Court has once again come to protect Indian democracy from the devious machinations of this regime.”

“It was laughable for the SBI to seek an extension on a simple one-day job. The fact is that the government is scared of all their skeletons tumbling out of the closet,” he said, adding, “This mega corruption scandal, as certified by the Supreme Court, will expose the unholy nexus between the BJP and its corrupt corporate masters.”

Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister P Chidambaram said the top court’s order “is a tight slap” on the SBI for defying its earlier order.

“This was a self-inflicted stain. The order of the Supreme Court today gives an opportunity to SBI to wipe the stain and redeem itself. I am sorry for the Chairman of SBI and the fine band of officers that they placed themselves in this situation,” Chidambaram said in a post on ‘X’.

In a landmark verdict delivered on February 15, a five-judge Constitution bench scrapped the Centre’s electoral bonds scheme, calling it “unconstitutional.”

Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal said: “When SBI tried to stall, the court stood tall”.

In a post on X, Sibal said: “Electoral Bonds: SBI’s application for extension of time to reveal details only in June, not by March 13, 2024, as directed by the Supreme Court. When SBI tried to stall, the Court stood tall!”

Sibal, who led the argument for the petitioners in the Supreme Court case against the electoral bond scheme, said the SBI claiming that it would take several weeks to make the data public sounds like “somebody wants to somebody”.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said: “The people of the entire country should be informed about this. Glad that at least the list (list of people associated with electoral bonds) will come through the Supreme Court. From this list it will be known to whom the election bonds related to. Now, the question is whether that list will be made public or

not.”

Taking a dig at the BJP, the former UP chief minister said: “Whether you or I will know or not, the BJP knows from where it got donations. If we had received donations, we would have known. Whether the public will know this or not is the biggest question,” he told reporters at the party office in Lucknow.