SBI’s arguments for extension of time to provide details on electoral bonds are flawed: Congress

Hitting out at the State Bank of India (SBI) for seeking more time from the Supreme Court to disclose details on electoral bonds, the Congress on March 7 asserted that the SBI’s arguments were flawed, and alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is “absolutely terrified of revealing his corporate donors to people”.

Asked to furnish data on the electoral bond scheme by March 6 by the Supreme Court, the SBI has approached the top court for time until June 30 to make the data available.

“Hide and seek in New India: Nation seeks, Modi hides! The Pradhan Mantri Chanda Chipao Yojana, implemented by the SBI, is built on lies,” Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh said in statement posted on social media platform X.

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Noting that the Supreme Court had asked the SBI to provide details of the electoral bond donors and recipients within three weeks, the former Union Minister said the SBI’s request for extension was “conveniently timed for after the upcoming Lok Sabha elections”.

“The SBI’s excuse was that its data on sale and encashment of electoral bonds is decoupled to maintain anonymity. According to the SBI, it would take months to match the buyers of the 22,217 electoral bonds issued since 2019 with the beneficiary parties. However, we know that each electoral bond was sold with two conditions - 1. Detailed Know Your Customer (KYC) exercise by the SBI branches to identify the buyer 2. Hidden serial numbers on the bonds,” the Congress leader said.

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“In fact, the Finance Ministry is on record having noted in 2017 that ‘The records of the purchaser are always available in the banking channel and may be retrieved as and when required by enforcement agencies’. What has changed between now and then?” Mr. Ramesh asked.

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In 2018, the Congress leader claimed, the SBI was able to identify the number and date of purchase of expired bonds when a political party tried to encash these expired bonds. He said the SBI had sought permission from the Finance Ministry and “moved with alacrity to enable the encashment of these bonds”.

“The truth is that the Prime Minister is absolutely terrified of revealing his corporate donors to the people of India. The man who famously said na khaunga, na khaane dunga [won’t be corrupt nor allow corruption] is now insisting on na bataunga, na dikhaunga [won’t tell, won’t show],” Mr. Ramesh alleged.