The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Thursday called for protests against the State Bank India for failing to provide details about electoral bonds to the Election Commission by March 6, calling it an “obvious ploy” to keep the details hidden till the Lok Sabha elections.
The Supreme Court on February 15 struck down as “unconstitutional and manifestly arbitrary” the electoral bonds scheme and directed the SBI to provide the details to the Election Commission by March 6. The bank on Monday moved the top court seeking time till June 30 to comply with the direction.
“This is an obvious ploy to ensure that the details of electoral bonds are not made public till the elections are over. It is unbelievable that the SBI, whose operations are digitised, cannot compile all the relevant details of electoral bonds in a few days time,” the CPI(M) Polit Bureau said in a statement.
It alleged that the SBI “could have taken this untenable stand only due to the pressure of the Modi government”.
