Electoral bonds are bearer bonds, introduced as a mechanism for individuals and companies to donate money to political parties in India in 2018 by the BJP government. They were introduced without consultation and ignoring objections of the Election Commission and the RBI. Electoral bonds worth Rs.
'Though the Ministry of Finance had thought about sharing details of the electoral bond scheme with political parties and seeking the public’s comments on it, the idea was dropped after a presentation before the prime minister on August 21, 2017... RTI activist Bharadwaj says it is apparent that during the meeting with the prime minister, the decision to not consult political parties and not circulate the draft scheme to all national and state parties with a 15-day window to seek their comments was taken.
'...Electoral bonds can be donated to parties anonymously. The purported logic is that this will shield donors from retribution at the hands of parties they did not support and also incentivise donors to contribute more. However, anonymity works against transparency, as the public cannot follow the money. It enables the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to claim that it is not corrupt when, in reality, it is squeezing funds out of different groups and people through whatever means necessary. Only the State Bank of India and the Reserve Bank of India will know who purchased bonds.
'Authorities have seized Rs 1.80 crore in cash from the son of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate in Arunachal Pradesh and a former legislator at a government guest house in East Siang district's Pasighat town, officials said on Wednesday (April 3). The money was seized from two vehicles parked at the guest house, Additional Chief Electoral Officer Kanki Darang said, adding that it was the largest seizure of cash in the state.
'While the negative impact of demonetisation can still be felt, the gains have been minor and could have been achieved even without the disruptive move... Hundreds of millions of Indians went through toil and trouble for months after the announcement of demonetisation on November 8, 2016. It has got etched in their memory since they lost jobs, their businesses declined and incomes plummeted.
'The senior Supreme Court lawyer, who was in Patna to lend his support to veterans fighting for OROP, said the BJP did nothing to bring back black money, and had it done so, it would have been able to meet the demands of ex-servicemen.
"On paper, the total comes to a mindboggling Rs 4,500 crore. But investigators say the worth of Asaram's shady empire will cross the Rs 10,000-crore mark if the land and real estate are valued at market rates instead of the old circle rates used by the police to value them... A murky money-lending nexus, shady land deals and clandestine conspiracies to buy police officers. Transactions in a range of financial instruments worth hundreds of crores. Investments in little-known American companies. Suspect foreign currency transactions worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
'When the Indian Express tweeted on Sunday that it was going to break “the biggest news of the year,” lots of people sat up and took notice. The last time the paper did this, it published an article claiming that the government-army relationship was so bad that the word “coup” wasn’t far away. That story dominated headlines for days and provoked heated debates for much longer. So when the Express finally came out on Monday morning, revealing a list of Indian Swiss bank account holders as part of a global investigation into tax dodgers, it didn’t quite seem to live up to the billing.
"The government has told the Supreme Court that it cannot disclose the names of people having black money stashed abroad. The government says that that the names cannot be made public as it violates the double taxation avoidance agreement. The government says that the names can only be shared with concerned agencies. Petitioner and senior lawyer and former BJP leader Ram Jethmalani has accused the Narendra Modi government of trying to protect people with black money. The apex court has agreed to hear the government's plea on October 28.
