Opposition hails Supreme Court order, says cover-up bid failed

Opposition parties have hailed the Supreme Court order, dismissing SBI's plea for a four-month extension to disclose the details of the donors to the SC-junked electoral bonds. They said the government's attempt through SBI to skirt the apex court order and stall the disclosure has failed.

Sitaram Yechury, general secretary of CPI(M), the only political party that was a petitioner in the SC against the electoral bond case and subsequently moved the pleas for contempt proceedings against SBI for not complying with the order on disclosure, welcomed the judgement. He said: "We welcome the fact that the Supreme Court has dismissed SBI's plea. This is in the interest of transparency of political funding in the country, particularly electoral funding... This goes a long way in ensuring transparency and also in confirming those who have bought the electoral bonds and donated it to the ruling party. Then, it can also be easily ascertained what they got in return. That quid pro quo will actually show that in the names (of donors) of electoral bonds... it was deal-making."

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said: "After SBI asked for four and a half months to publish the names of donors to electoral bonds, it became clear that the Modi government was making every effort to cover up its dark deeds. With today's decision of the Supreme Court, the country will soon know the list of those who donated to BJP through electoral bonds. This is the first step in exposing the corruption, scams and transactions of the Modi government."


In a social media post in Hindi, party leader Rahul Gandhi stated: "Narendra Modi's 'donation business' is about to be exposed! The government that came to power by promising to bring back black money from Swiss banks in 100 days, stood on its head in the Supreme Court for hiding the data of its own bank. Electoral bonds is going to prove to be the biggest scam in Indian history, which will reveal the real face of Narendra Modi in front of the country..."