People will take money as number two: Nitin Gadkari points out drawback of barring electoral bonds

Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Monday supported the electoral bonds scheme for political funding. Gadkari said the scrapping of the electoral bonds scheme would open the floodgates for black money in political funding and all the parties should consider developing a better system.

"If you do not allow (electoral) bonds, people will take money as number two. This will happen anyway," Gadkari told NDTV in an interview. 

Defending the now-scrapped election funding scheme, Gadkari said: "This scheme was made with the idea that parties would get money through bonds and it will help push the economy if you want it to make it number one." Gadkari, however, did not comment on the Supreme Court ruling against the electoral bonds scheme which declared it unconstitutional. 

Last month, the Supreme Court declared the electoral bonds scheme unconstitutional. The Supreme Court objected to undisclosed funding taken by  political parties through corporate donations.

"Political contributors get access... this access leads to policy making... because of the nexus between money and voting. Financial supports to political parties can lead to quid pro quo arrangement," CJI D Y Chandrachud said while scrapping the scheme. 

Gadkari said that electoral bonds "will be purchased by people who are wealthy." He further explained that those who are wealthy would either be contractors or those who have made it big in trade or industry, adding that it is not right to link electoral bonds to quid pro quo. 

Not only this, Gadkari also questioned claims that the electoral bonds scheme can bring black money into the system. He said that how can money which creates growth, employment and revenue be called as black money. He further said that the money that is taken outside the country and dumped elsewhere is the problem. 

Gadkari was, however, not the only one to back the now defunct electoral bonds scheme. Union Home Minister Amit Shah said before the scheme was implemented, political parties received donations through cash. In the electoral bonds scheme, companies or individuals submitted a cheque to the Reserve Bank of India to purchase bonds for donations to political parties. 

Lambasting Rahul Gandhi for calling electoral bonds "the biggest extortion racket in the world," Shah said at the India Today Conclave 2024, "There is a perception that the BJP benefitted from the electoral bonds scheme because it is in power... Rahul Gandhi also said it is the biggest extortion racket in the world. Don't know who writes these things for him."

He further said that the BJP received around Rs 6,000 crore out of electoral bonds worth Rs 20,000 crore for all political parties. Shah underlined that the Trinamool Congress encashed bonds worth Rs 1,600 crore, Congress received Rs 1,400 crore, Bharat Rashtra Samithi received Rs 1,200 crore, Biju Janata Dal got Rs 775 crore and DMK got Rs 649 crore.