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On whether the Supreme Court’s verdict declaring the electoral bonds unconstitutional corrects the nixing of the level playing field, Sibal said it has still not been corrected.However, he argued that the court could not have done anything about it at this stage.”The fact of the matter is that the BJP has in that process enjoyed over Rs 6,000 crore of white money, which is huge in the context of what they can do with those Rs 6,000 crore in the course of an election.So obviously, it (electoral bond scheme) has resulted in a non-level playing field,” Sibal said.The whole scheme was conceived with a political motive for aggrandising the BJP and making them the richest party in the world, the Independent MP said.He also claimed that the intent of the scheme as set out in 2017 was to ensure that the money comes into the coffers of the government in power at the Centre.Sibal said that with probe agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate and the CBI behaving the way they have done in the last few years, they will be targeting the opposition parties and leaders once the details of the electoral bonds are out before June.”My worry is in fact that taken to its logical conclusion with the ED being with them and the CBI being part of the so-called establishment, they will be targeting the opposition, and it will create another level of non-level playing field,” he added.Sibal further said that the opposition parties should have together raised the issue of electoral bonds to corner the government after the Supreme Court verdict.He, however, acknowledged that the opposition parties were too involved in trying to settle the seat-sharing issue.”Fundamentally, that (sharing of seats) is more important for the reason that elections are round the corner, but I think this (electoral bonds) will be a big issue in these elections,” the MP said.”I hope the Supreme Court stands by its direction.If they get the names, then it will be a big issue,” he added.On February 15, a five-judge Constitution bench scrapped the Centre’s electoral bonds scheme of anonymous political funding, calling it “unconstitutional” and ordering disclosure by the Election Commission of the donors, the amount donated by them and the recipients by March 13.Ordering the closure of the scheme, the top court directed the SBI to submit by March 6 the details of the electoral bonds purchased since April 12, 2019, till date to the Election Commission, which was asked to publish the information on its official website by March 13.On March 4, the SBI moved the apex court, seeking an extension of time till June 30 to disclose the details.
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Sibal on SBI plea on electoral bonds issue
