The Congress on Wednesday hit out at the central government over the introduction of electoral bonds, alleging that withholding the donors’ names was a “regressive step” and would give unlimited access to the ruling party to misuse official machinery to “coerce” them. Chief spokesperson of the Congress Randeep Surjewala said that hiding names of donors of electoral bonds was a “regressive step”. “Hiding ‘donor names’ of ‘Electoral Bonds’ is a regressive step that paints process of Electoral Funding to Modi Government’s favourite colour: BLACK! “Is it meant to stifle ‘transparency’ and give unlimited access to ruling party to misuse info and state machinery to coerce donors!” Surjewala tweeted. In a bid to clean election financing, the government yesterday outlined contours of the new electoral bonds that donors can buy from SBI and said receiving political parties can encash only through a designated bank account.

Source: Hindustan Times January 03, 2018 11:26 UTC