FIR in EBS case raises unasked questions

The FIR registered in a Bengaluru police station against Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Bharatiya Janata Party chief J. P. Nadda, officials of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and several other leaders may be a new phase in the Centre-State slugfest, but raises questions quite pertinent to the Electoral Bonds Scheme that was scrapped after the Supreme Court held it unconstitutional in February this year. It is surprising why the apex court which held it illegal for violating the right to information and freedom of speech under Article 19(1) of the Constitution, shirked from questioning the extortion angle which was quite manifest from the way the Bonds scheme operated for over five years with majority of the Bonds being purchased by companies that did not earn any profit.

Details of the giveaways that came to light following the State Bank of India’s release of the full list of donor companies and the receiving political parties had made it amply clear that the donation followed arm-twisting by the central agencies. And in the majority of cases, the recipient was the Bharatiya Janata Party ruling the Centre. It was apparent that the anonymity of the donor was an advantage for the BJP which was privy to the information sheer by dint of being in the saddle of power and being capable of extracting a quid pro quo. Whatever may be the fate of the case stemming from the FIR registered in Bengaluru following directions of a special court, the charges of extortion and criminal conspiracy are central to the case and deserve and urge prosecution of individuals involved in the scam that involved amount in excess of Rs. 11,000 crores being extorted from the companies.

It was surprising that the apex court neither directed the culprits involved in the scam nor even asked the illegal proceeds to be returned to the donor companies following their being declared illegal. Having been declared illegal, it was quite logical to expect the court to deprive the illegal recipients—political parties in this case—from benefitting from the booty and ordering their return to the loser. It will be interesting to see the progress of the case, not merely because it arraigns the nation’s finance minister, who incidentally happens to a member of the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka, and the chief of the ruling party, but also because it will explore and expose the hard questions that remained from being raised, perhaps due to the heat of general elections that gripped the nation then.