Ex-CEC suggests impartial watchdog to vet poll bonds

“An impartial watchdog that can give a certificate to Parliament every year that this information was not shared anywhere, it is accurate and that it confirms no foreign funding and no shell companies have used the electoral bond route,” Rawat suggested. Though, “any policing arrangement can be vulnerable to pressures”, he added.

The electoral bond scheme was launched on March 1, 2018 with the first tranche of bonds even as the EC raised concerns over the opacity of funding. Rawat said the proposal was brought to the EC’s notice in 2017, when he was an Election Commissioner, and the poll panel immediately wrote to the law ministry with its concerns.

“One was that it would create opacity in campaign financing. Nobody will know who has given to whom and what is the source of the money. The second concern was that since the source of money is not known, how will the Election Commission be able to ensure compliance that no foreign funding has taken place. The law provides that no party can take donations from foreign entities. The third concern was that State Bank of India will have the details of KYC. And SBI being a government entity, would create distortion in the level playing field because the ruling party may get information from them, whereas outsiders will not be able to get the information,” Rawat said.

He said the finance secretary had tried to explain the proposal to the poll panel, but it was not “satisfied”.

Looking back at five years of the scheme, he said, the concerns expressed by the EC don’t seem to have been echoed by political parties.

“Hardly any issues have cropped up over the last five years on those doubts expressed earlier, including that the government knows the identity and the Opposition parties don’t know. No Opposition party is crying foul that they don’t know the identity,” he said.

He added that the scheme was a small part of the larger set of factors affecting the running of a democracy.

“All election results are accepted by all stakeholders. There has been no hue and cry. By those yardsticks, yes, it is okay. But there is always room for improvement. One simple step can change a lot. That is putting a ceiling on party expenditure. Individual candidates’ have a ceiling, but there is no ceiling on party expenditure and that is playing havoc with the whole campaign financing issue,” Rawat said.