New Delhi: Facing the heat on the electoral bond issue, the Government now turns on the CAA on the eve of the 2024 Lok Sabha general elections!
After a February 15, 2024, verdict to scrap the electoral bonds, and its directive to the Election Commission to make the details of the donation public by March 15, 2024, the Supreme Court today dealt another blow to the Narendra Modi government by dismissing the State Bank of India’s application for an extension of time in the electoral bonds case. The SBI had approached the court for an extension, allowing it to disclose the details by June 30, 2024, but the court gave it just 24 hours to do that. The court warned that it would initiate contempt proceedings against the SBI if it failed to provide the information by tomorrow.
Thereafter, in a move that many in the Opposition termed as a diversionary tactic, the Narendra Modi government notified the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), almost five years after passing it in Parliament.
Raising fingers at the timing of the notification, Prime Minister Modi’s detractors asked why the Government remained seated on the bill for 5 years.
With CAA in place, India can now grant Indian nationality to non-Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan who had come to India till December 31, 2014.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party had promised the implementation of the CAA in its election manifesto for the last general elections of 2019, but it announced its implementation now on the eve of the 2024 general elections.
Some critics have termed the announcement as a move to polarise the votes, while many others considered the move as a diversionary tactic to bury the effect of the Supreme Court verdict on the Electoral Bond. The electoral bond scheme (EBS) was introduced by the government in 2017 to facilitate individuals and corporate houses to donate money with no capping, to political parties by purchasing bonds from the SBI, and without disclosing their identities. However, the Supreme Court struck down the EBS on grounds that it violated the voters’ right to information regarding the sources of funding of political parties on February 15, 2024.
– global bihari bureau
