Former bureaucrats ask EC not to announce Lok Sabha schedule pending electoral bonds disclosure by SBI

Days after the State Bank of India sought an extension from the Supreme Court to submit data on electoral bonds, a group of former civil servants on Saturday asked the Election Commission not to announce the schedule for Lok Sabha polls till the bank shares the information as mandated by the top court.

The former bureaucrats, under the banner of the Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG), said that SBI should give the electoral bonds data much before the announcement of the general election.

The Supreme Court had on February 15 scrapped the electoral bonds scheme. It had also directed SBI to furnish data regarding the electoral bonds to the Election Commission by March 6. The public sector bank had on March 4 moved the Supreme Court seeking an extension of time till June 30 to disclose the details of the bonds.

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The CCG, which said that it had no affiliation with any political party but believes in impartiality, neutrality and commitment to the Constitution, noted with dismay that it took the SBI 17 days to inform the Supreme Court on March 4 that they are not in a position to collate the data by March 6.

“For India’s largest bank with 48 crore accounts and boasting high levels of digitization, a pathetic excuse has been proffered that records were kept manually and hence the extension sought,” it said in a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and Election Commissioner Arun Goel.

The CCG quoted a letter by Thomas Franco, former General Secretary of the All India Banking Officers’ Confederation, which pointed out that SBI had asked the government in June 2018 for a sum of more than ₹60 lakh for development of IT systems for the electoral bonds scheme.

The grouping also said that Subhash Chandra Garg, Union Finance Secretary at the time that the scheme was finalised, “had said in interviews that it should not take more than 10 minutes to get the information sought”.

The SBI denying this information and indicating that it would not be available before the general election seems to indicate that the bank is shielding the government in power from any criticism that there was a quid pro quo between the bonds and favours given to some firms or raids/intimidation to pressure the corporates to fall in line, the letter said.

The SBI should give the electoral bonds data much before the announcement of the elections, the grouping reckoned, adding that the EC should direct the bank to immediately release the information and make it clear that it will not announce the schedule for the upcoming general election till SBI furnishes it.