New Delhi, India
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made his first public remarks on the contentious electoral bond scheme that was scrapped by the nation's Supreme Court in March 2024.
During an interview with Thanti TV, a prominent Tamil news channel, he warned that those criticising the use of electoral bonds will "soon regret it."
'We could trace source of funding'
During the interview that was telecast on Sunday (Mar 31), Modi said, "People who are protesting against electoral bonds will soon regret it."
"Before 2014, there was no trail of funds given to political parties during elections. I introduced the electoral bonds. Thanks to the electoral bonds, we can now trace the source of funding," he added.
Dismissing suggestions that it was a setback, Modi, as per media reports, asked, "Tell me what I did to cause a setback?"
"Those who are happy about it today will regret tomorrow. I ask these experts—how many elections were held before 2014? There must have been expenses in those elections, right? Can any organisation tell where that money came from?"
"Today Modi has created election documents; that’s why you can search about it. You can find out who gave the money and who received it. Otherwise, no one knows where the money came from. Elections happened before too … Today, you know these details through election documents."
"Every issue may have some flaws. But if these flaws are fixed, it can be corrected," he added.
PM Modi on ED misuse allegations
The Indian Prime Minister also denied allegations of misuse of central agencies against opposition parties.
During the interview, he said that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and other agencies operate independently.
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"We neither obstruct nor direct its actions; it should work independently and is evaluated by the scales of the judiciary."
"Currently, ED has around 7,000 cases, of which less than 3 per cent involve politicians. Out of these 7,000 cases, only 3 per cent are politically related."
"During their (the opposition's) 10-year rule, the amount of money they [ED] seized was only Rs 35 lakh (USD 41,966), while we have seized Rs 2,200 crore (263.7 million)," he claimed.
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Addressing the perception that central agencies target only opposition leaders and not those from the BJP, he said, "Regardless of the party, the process is the same. ED cannot initiate any case on its own; various departments need to file the cases first, then ED takes action… The PMLA law has existed since before, but they did not use it."
"Over 150 court cases were filed to exempt the PMLA law, and they even went to the Supreme Court to remove or retain an officer. They used the judiciary as a weapon because they know Modi's actions against corruption won't stop. They think they can stop these organisations through the courts," he said.
(With inputs from agencies)