The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on March 23.

THE Modi government has indulged in the height of duplicity to hoodwink the people of this country with its loud pronouncements to cleanse corruption, particularly in the electoral process. 

This is clear from the amendment slipped into the  provisions of Finance Bill 2017 where the “limit of 7.5 percent of net profit of the last three financial years” and “the requirements of a company to disclose the name of the political parties to which a contribution has been made” has been deleted.  The Companies Act as amended now allows corporates to pay political parties an unlimited amount through the Election Bonds Scheme without disclosing the beneficiaries names. 

The CPI(M) has consistently demanded the banning of corporate funding to political parties,  as this constitutes the fountainhead for corruption at high places.  This Modi government has not only widened the process of corporate funding to political parties but has also created new avenues for large-scale money laundering. 

The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) condemns these measures and calls upon all political parties, social movements and individuals, who cherish to strengthen our democratic electoral process, to unitedly oppose these moves which allow new obnoxious levels of political corruption.