Nitin Gadkari Shares Modi Government's "Intention" Behind Electoral Bonds Scheme

Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways of India, Nitin Gadkari recently shared his thoughts on the electoral bonds scheme, which was recently struck down by the Supreme Court terming it unconstitutional and a breach of the Right to Information (RTI). Addressing the media at GIFT City near Gandhinagar, Nitin Gadkari said the Government had a good intention behind the electoral bonds scheme introduced in 2017. He added that all parties need to sit together and find a midway.

"When Arun Jaitley was (Union finance) minister, I was part of that discussion (regarding electoral bonds). No party can survive without resources. In some countries, governments fund political parties. There is no such system in India. Thus, we chose this system of financing political parties," Nitin Gadkari said.

Gadkari emphasised that the government only wanted white money to be donated to political parties and they should get funds directly, adding that electoral bonds kept the doner's identity secret so that if a state or central government changes, they should not face any problem.

With a pinch of humor, senior BJP leader said funds are required to run political parties.

"You need to see the ground reality. How are parties supposed to fight elections? We brought this system of electoral bonds to bring transparency. So, our intention was good when we brought electoral bonds. If the Supreme Court finds any shortcomings in it and asks us to rectify it, all parties will sit together and unanimously deliberate on it," Nitin Gadkari said.

A few weeks ago, the Supreme Court delivered a landmark judgment over the use of the electoral bonds scheme and directed the State Bank of India (SBI) to share the doner and receivers' complete data, which has now been uploaded on the Election Commission website ahead of the Lok Sabha elections 2024 and it may impact the elections at large.