In the backdrop of the details about the sale and purchase of electoral bonds becoming public in pursuance of the directions of the Supreme Court, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Saturday emphasised transparency in contributions to political parties, saying there is no scope for hiding things in democracy. But the CEC also stressed the need to formulate an institutional mechanism where the donor's privacy is also considered.
“The Commission has always been in favour of transparency right from the stage when we submitted our stand in the hon'ble Supreme Court. In a democracy there is no scope for hiding things. Democracy is all about making everybody know, become aware. There should be transparency, and information must be given out. We are all for it,” Kumar said in response to a question on the electoral bond issue at a press conference held to declare the schedule of the Lok Sabha elections.
He also said that the country now has to find solutions through an institutional mechanism where the donor's privacy is also considered.
The Commission, he pointed out, has made it compulsory for all political parties to submit their annual accounts of contributions and expenditure, which are then published on the EC website.
“...how we also control the donations in the unaccounted form is something that the entire nation has to work out together, how the donor's privacy is also protected, he is not harassed, how it is channelised, how it is more and more white,” Kumar said.
He said that in the digital age, the cash component should be minimised. “I am sure some better system will evolve where it becomes like that,” he said.
The Commission has, acting on the directions of the Supreme Court, published on its website the two lists provided by the State Bank of India of the purchasers of the bonds— the donors who used the bond route, and the political parties which encashed the bonds.
