Former bureaucrats urge EC not to announce LS poll schedule till SBI shares info on electoral bonds

New Delhi: Around 80 former bureaucrats on Saturday urged the Election Commission not to announce the schedule for Lok Sabha elections till SBI shares information on the scrapped electoral bonds as mandated by the Supreme Court.

The former civil servants said the SBI's argument that it cannot collate information before the Lok Sabha elections seems to indicate that it is “shielding the government from any criticism that there was a quid pro quo between the bonds and favours given to some firms or raids/intimidation to pressurise the corporates to fall in line”.

In the open letter to Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and Election Commissioner Arun Goel, the 79 former bureaucrats under the banner ‘Constitutional Conduct Group’ said, “the ECI should also make it clear that it will not announce the schedule for the 2024 general elections till the SBI furnishes this information.”

“If the ECI remains quiescent, it will not live up to its Constitutional mandate of respecting the right to information of Indian voters and of holding free and fair elections on a level playing field. That would be a death blow for democracy in India as we know it,” they said.

The open letter, which was signed by Shiv Shankar Menon, GK Pillai, Meeran C Borwankar, Wajahat Habibullah, KP Fabian, Julio Ribeiro and K Sujatha Rao among others, said the term of the present Lok Sabha is up to June 16 and to complete the election in time, the EC could announce the schedule by March 27, or even earlier.

“The SBI should give the electoral bonds data much before the announcement of the elections. This is an opportunity for the ECI to reclaim its reputation and its integrity by using its powers under Article 324 of the Constitution,” they said adding they were dismayed that it took SBI 17 days to inform the Supreme Court on March 4 that they are not in a position to collate the data by the deadline of 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,” the open letter said referring to the SBI's application in Supreme Court seeking time till June 30 provide details of those who bought and encashed electoral bonds.

They also referred to former Finance Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg's statements that it would not take more than ten minutes to get the information sought by the court.

The open letter also supported a letter written by former IAS officer EAS Sharma to the Election Commission requesting it to “not only to freeze any unspent funds of political parties from the scheme but also not to publish the schedule of elections till the SBI gives the information ordered by the Supreme Court”.