{
 "no": 4,
 "id": "case-4",
 "sk": 20180102,
 "year": 2018,
 "date": "Scheme Jan 2018. Struck down Feb 2024",
 "cat": "Fund opacity",
 "sev": "red",
 "title": "Electoral bonds. The anonymous money machine",
 "stamp": "Struck down as unconstitutional",
 "human": {
  "v": "Every voter, stripped of the right to know who funds power",
  "est": false
 },
 "cost": {
  "v": "<b>₹12,146 cr</b> encashed in total; the ruling BJP took <b>~₹6,000 cr+</b>, more than the next six parties combined",
  "est": false
 },
 "what": "A scheme that let donors hand unlimited, publicly anonymous sums to parties through the state-owned SBI, while scrapping the cap on corporate donations.",
 "dodge": "Sold as transparency, it delivered secrecy for the public and visibility for whoever controlled the state bank. When the Supreme Court forced disclosure, the numbers confirmed the ruling party as the runaway top beneficiary. The Court struck the scheme down as unconstitutional in 2024. For the years of lopsided, hidden money it enabled, nobody was ever held to account.",
 "ministers": [
  {
   "n": "Arun Jaitley",
   "r": "Finance Minister who introduced it"
  }
 ],
 "pos": "The government argued the scheme moved donations into banking channels and protected donor privacy.",
 "alleg": "Reporting and the opposition alleged patterns linking bond purchases to contracts and to the timing of agency raids on donors. These are <em>contested allegations</em>; the Court ruled on constitutionality, not on any specific quid pro quo.",
 "alt": "Full public disclosure of every donor, a firm corporate cap, a bar on shell and loss-making donors, and a move to capped small-donor or state funding.",
 "sources": [
  {
   "label": "BJP got more than next 6 combined",
   "url": "https://www.business-standard.com/elections/lok-sabha-election/electoral-bonds-bjp-received-more-funds-than-the-next-6-parties-combined-124031500434_1.html",
   "tier": 2,
   "archiveUrl": "http://web.archive.org/web/20240525212448/https://www.business-standard.com/elections/lok-sabha-election/electoral-bonds-bjp-received-more-funds-than-the-next-6-parties-combined-124031500434_1.html"
  },
  {
   "label": "Top donors and beneficiaries",
   "url": "https://www.business-standard.com/elections/lok-sabha-election/electoral-bonds-data-here-s-a-list-of-the-biggest-donors-and-beneficiaries-124032200461_1.html",
   "tier": 2,
   "archiveUrl": "http://web.archive.org/web/20250211123857/https://www.business-standard.com/elections/lok-sabha-election/electoral-bonds-data-here-s-a-list-of-the-biggest-donors-and-beneficiaries-124032200461_1.html"
  }
 ],
 "estimates": {
  "costInrCrore": 12146
 },
 "caseUrl": "https://whoisresponsible.xyz/case/case-4/"
}