NEW DELHI: Former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan is making headlines after his recent statement on the electoral bond scheme.
The former governor of the Reserve Bank of India faced backlash for suggesting that the recovery of crores of rupees from Congress MP Dhiraj Sahu was partly a result of the Centre's electoral bond scheme, which he said had created an unequal field for political funding.
Rajan has suggested that it favours the ruling party in political funding, creating an unbalanced playing field. He is concerned about the anonymity of donors and the potential for government influence over Opposition funding.
"At the time of the election, you raid the opposition. How are elections fought - they are fought with money. These guys (funding the ruling party) can write checks, and those guys (backing the opposition) have to take the bundles of cash. You are (not) creating a level playing field because you are making the cash to come here and checks there (to the ruling party). And then you put ED and CBI to go after those people. This is not a fair election process," he said while speaking media.
"They (the ruling party) will get clean money, the opposition will have to use dirty cash," Rajan further said, who is in India to promote his new book - 'Breaking the Mould'.
Rajan's comment was seen, by some, as a justification for black money amassed by some opposition leaders.
The remarks also come at a time when Congress Rajya Sabha MP Dhiraj Sahu is at the centre of a storm after the recovery of a massive Rs 351 crore from places linked to him during raids by the Income Tax Department.
