Electoral bonds are “undemocratic as they have served to kill transparency in the name of donor anonymity”, S Y Quraishi, India’s former chief election commissioner told IndiaSpend in an email interview.
These bonds–95% of which have come to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2017-18–have “legitimised crony capitalism”, said Quraishi, 72, who ran the Election Commission of India (ECI) from 2010 to 2012.
In the course of an interview, Quraishi commented on a range of topics, many controversial, including the BJP’s idea of a single election for India’s parliament and its states and a kerfuffle in the ECI over a dissenting note by one of the current election commissioners.
The ECI was embroiled in controversy during the 2019 general elections when it decided that dissenting views in the commission would not be recorded. Ashok Lavasa, election
— source indiaspend.com | 16 Aug, 2019