The Electoral Bond Scam is not only the biggest scam in our country, but it is the biggest scam in the world! I am not saying this, but india Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s husband, who is also an economist, made this claim. “Electoral bond issue is not only the biggest scam in India, but this is the biggest scam in the world.
Today I told you that this is not just a standalone scam, but it is a collection of scams, but a collection of a multitude of scams. Some scams where public funds have been stolen unabashedly, some scams where unworthy companies were given government tenders, some cases where tax-evading companies were allowed to continue stealing, and some cases where companies were extorted.
But apart from all this, there are some scams where they were playing with the lives of the citizens. If a person passes away because of a disease, then people often say, “who can avoid the inevitable? It was God’s will.
” But think about it, friends. If a person d!es because of bad-quality medicines, would you call it God’s will? Imagine if the government regulators ignore the poor quality of medicines manufactured by a company and people d!e because of it. It sounds like the plot of a dark political thriller. But unfortunately, this is the truth.
Look at this report written by health reporter Priyanka Pulla and published in Live Mint in December 2021. This report tells us a story from 9th May, 2021. During the second wave of Covid in India, working at Uttar Pradesh’s Chiranjeev Hospital, anesthesiologist Jitendra Pal got a call from the nursing staff.
Over the call, he was told about stranger symptoms in 2 patients. They were shivering with high fever, and suddenly, their blood oxygen level plummeted. Both patients were given the first shot of anti-viral medication Remdesivir. And only an hour later, this was the reaction. Shockingly, this was not the only incident.
A few days ago, as Jitendra Pal had seen, the same thing happened to 4 patients of Lifeline Hospital. After investigation, it was found that in both these hospitals, the same batch of shots was given to the patients. Batch V100167 It was manufactured by a company in Gujarat, Zydus Cadila. This medicine was procured from the company by the UP government.
But as soon as doctors noticed the adverse reactions among patients, Doctors stopped using this batch of the medicine. The doctors informed the families that they would use another medicine for Covid patients. Jitendra Pal told Livemint that once they stopped using this medicine, patients’ condition improved.
But similar stories were playing out in many other hospitals in Uttar Pradesh. Jhansi Maharani Lakshmi Bai Medical College, Meerut’s Lala Lajpat Rai Memorial Medical College, and Varanasi’s Ashirvad and Apex Hospital. Between 7th and 9th May, Dr. Anuj Kumar, who was working in another hospital, reported the same thing.
5 patients who had purchased Remdesivir from this company, of the V100156 batch, suddenly developed a fever and started having breathing problems. Dr Anuj Kumar reported that even though the symptoms of COVID were similar, it was easy to identify that the patients were having problems due to the medicines.
After a few days, similar news were coming from other states as well. Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Bihar. Patients were getting sicker after taking Remdesivir. These medicines were from similar batches. V100153, 156, 166, 167, 170, or L100148. In all of these cases, the manufacturer was the same. Cadila.
Government-owned procurement companies bought these medicines. Many hospitals raised concerns over this, but state regulators in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and Gujarat did not do much. Only Bihar’s regulators raised a red flag. They tested the medicines of this company’s V100167 batch and it was found that these medicines actually contained bacterial endotoxins.
Compounds that can cause fever in humans and can cause septic shock if taken in excess. When this came to light, a case was filed against this company in Patna’s civil court. But the thing is the manufacturing unit of this company was located in Gujarat. And it was Gujarat FDCA’s responsibility to check whether the medicines of this company were meeting the quality standards or not.
They had granted the license to this company to manufacture these medicines. And when these reports started pouring in that some of their medicines were of sub-standard quality, then Bihar’s regulator informed the Gujarat FDCA too. And it was their responsibility to test these batches. But they did not conduct any testing.
The Joint Commissioner of Gujarat’s Regulatory Lab told Mint that the batches of these medicines never reached their lab for testing. The Gujarat FDCA Commissioner was repeatedly asked about why didn’t their department test the medicines. But there were no answers. As per the Drugs and Cosmetics law, every remaining bottle of this medicine should have been recalled.
But there is no proof that the Gujarat FDCA recalled those medicines. When Cadila’s spokesperson was asked about these reports, they denied these allegations. But now, there’s another shocking twist in this story. 6 months before this happened, in November 2020, WHO, the World Health Organisation had said that we should not use Remdesivir.
WHO conducted a study on more than 14,000 people across more than 450 hospitals in 35 countries. The study found that Remdesivir is not actually effective against Covid. Even so, not only did our government approve Remdesivir, but was also talking about increasing its production. Look at the government’s press release from April 2021.
This medicine was originally developed by an American company. And 7 Indian companies in India got its manufacturing licence. Friends, you will now ask, how is any of this connected to the electoral bonds? There is a connection, and an irrefutable connection at that. But before telling you about that connection, you need to understand the chronology properly.
First, the World Health Organization said that Remdesivir should not be used. Second, Modi government ignored WHO’s advice and approved the increase of production of this medicine. Third, Zydus Cadila company was given the approval to manufacture this medicine, by the Gujarat FDCA. Fourth, hospitals from 5 states reported that due to the defective batches of the medicine, the condition of Covid patients had declined.
Fifth, Bihar’s regulator had found that these defective batches contained bacterial endotoxins. These medicines were of poor quality. And sixth, despite all this, Gujarat FDCA did not test these defective batches. BJP formed the central government as well as the Gujarat government. And now, the electoral bonds data revealed that this Zydus Cadila company donated ₹180 million to BJP through the electoral bonds.
I would like to ask Prime Minister Modi only one question. Is the life of a common person worthless? This company donated ₹30 million to Congress, which was in power in Rajasthan at that time. And ₹80 million to BJP’s ally, SKM, Sikkim Krantikari Morcha, which is in power in Sikkim since 2019. This political party received donations from 5 companies, where 4 of them were pharma companies.
Sikkim is considered a pharma hub. And it seems that SKM has taken full advantage of this. But Zydus Cadila was not the only company. There is another pharma company, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals. 5 notices were served between 2022 and 2023 because of substandard medicines. 4 of these notices were issued by Maharashtra Food and Drugs Administration.
The blood pressure regulating medicine manufactured by this company was said to be substandard. And now, looking at the electoral bonds data we know that this company bought electoral bonds worth ₹97.5 million in November 2022. And BJP encashed all these bonds. Prime Minister Modi launched the Fit India movement a few years ago.
I would like to ask, is this his Fit India? Look at another Gujarat-based company, Torrent Pharma, its antiplatelet medicine Deplatt 150 failed the salicylic acid test. Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration declared it to be substandard in 2018. In October 2019, the US Food and Drug Administration warned this company.due to their repeated quality-related failures in their manufacturing units. But what happened next? between May 2019 and January 2024, this company bought electoral bonds worth ₹775 million. The majority of the money, ₹610 million, went to BJP. Since America warned about this company’s medicines, the Indian authorities should have at least inspected it.
But the BJP government in Gujarat did not take any action. Another major pharma company, Cipla, was served 4 show-cause notices regarding their medicines. In August 2018, during an inspection, this company’s RC cough syrup failed ot meet the standards. In July 2021, it got notices twice for its Remdesivir medicine.
It was found that in their Remdesivir medicines, the quantity of the ingredient Remdesivir was insufficient. Now we find out that this company bought electoral bonds worth ₹392 million. Out of which, ₹370 million were donated to BJP and ₹22 million to Congress. The date on which this Mumbai-based company bought these bonds will help you understand the chronology better.
In July 2019 and October 2019, this company bought electoral bonds. But in November 2019, BJP was removed from power and Uddhav Thackeray became the new Chief Minister of Maharashtra. He remained the Chief Minister till June 2022. After that the BJP coalition government was formed again. What do we see next? This company bought electoral bonds in November 2022 again.
Paying bribes for opportunities, this scheme is only a part of this electoral bond scam. You may think that this doesn’t affect us. A company paid some money to get business opportunities, and even though other companies suffered, we’re safe. Some people might even be okay with them taking a share of public funds by paying some extra amount to political parties,.
But can you be so uninterested even after listening to this case? A cough syrup is not only given to adults, but also to children older than 6 years. Look at this news from December 2022. 18 children lost their lives in Uzbekistan due to drinking substandard cough syrup. The next month, in January 2023, WHO linked the de@ths of these children to two contaminated cough syrups.
Ambronol Syrup and Dok1- Max Syrup. Laboratory analysis revealed that both these products contained high amounts of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol. Both these cough syrups were manufactured by a company in Uttar Pradesh, Marion Biotech, and was distributed by Quramax Medical in Uzbekistan. But Uzbekistan was not the only case.
Look at this news. Even in Gambia and Cameroon, children d!ed due to contaminated cough syrups. Apart from Marion Biotech, two other Indian companies were involved. Haryana-based Maiden Pharmaceuticals and Madhya Pradesh-based Riemann Labs. In total, 141 children lost their lives and Marion Biotech’s cough syrup was related to 68 of these de@ths.
What was the Uzbekistani government’s response to this incident? Their Ministry of Health banned all the drugs that were being imported by Quramax. In January 2023, their court cancelled the licence of Quramax Medical. It was decided that all remaining medicines imported by this company would be destroyed.
The court sentenced 23 people to imprisonment. For a term of 2 to 20 years to the people responsible for this. One of them was Raghvendra Pratar Singh the Indian Executive Director of Quramax. He was sentenced to 20 years in jail. In India, there was an investigation by the Central Drug Standard Control Organisation.
22 samples of the cough syrup manufactured by this company were tested and they were found to be adulterated. Reuters reported that Marion Biotech was buying the ingredient propylene from a company named Maya Chemtech India. But this company did not even have a licence to sell pharmaceutical-grade materials.
It was given only an industrial-grade licence. The difference is that industrial-grade propylene glycol is actually toxic for humans. It is used in liquid detergents, paints, or coatings. Maya Chemtech, in its defence, said that they didn’t know that their Propylene Glycol was used by another company to make Cough Syrups.
But why did Marion Biotech do this? The then head of operations of this company, Tuhin Bhattacharya, confessed to Reuters that the company was exporting these cough syrups for more than 10 years. And in those 10 years, they had never tested their Propylene glycol. Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council of India suspended Marion Biotech’s registration certificate in December 2022.
The authorities of Uttar Pradesh cancelled the manufacturing licence of this company in March 2023. 3 employees were arrested. An FIR was lodged against 2 directors of this company, Sachin Jain and Jaya Jain. But then comes a twist in our story. UP police officer Vijay Kumar says that these 3 employees were later released on bail.
In April 2023, Allahabad High Court issued an order related to Sachin Jain and Jaya Jain. “Unless there is a conviction against them, police cannot arrest them.” In October 2023, it was reported that this company has been allowed once again to reopen its factory. It was found that the Uttar Pradesh government had issued an order regarding this on 14th September.
The order states that the company is not permitted to manufacture any products that contained propylene glycol. But is allowed to manufacture and sell all other products. But friends, this is not a standalone case either. There’s a similar story about another company. Look at this news article from September 2023, in Udhampur district of J&K, around 12 children d!ed.
Some of them were only 2 months old. Some were 1 year old and some were 2 years old. They d!ed because they drank a cough syrup which had a high amount of diethylene glycol. This cough syrup was made by Digital Vision Pharma Company. And when it was tested, it was found that, they were using industrial-grade ingredients in their medicines too.
Despite the de@th of so many children, it took 3 years to file a charge sheet in this case. And according to this article, even though it’s been 4 years since the incident, no one was found guilty for this. But before this incident, this Digital Vision Pharma Company was given several warnings. The drug regulators of Maharashtra and Gujarat had issued at least 16 warnings to the company.
There are many examples like this friends. In December 2023, the Central Drug Standard Control Organisation tested the samples of different cough syrups. It was found that 54 pharma companies had failed the export quality tests for the cough syrups. For years, our country has the reputation of being the Pharmacy of the World.
But first, those 3 companies brought down this reputation and then when the samples of cough syrups from these 54 companies were analysed, what impact would it have on the country’s reputation? After hearing all this, you might feel that since our government cares about the country and its people, they must have taken some action about it definitely.
They must have tried to make quality control stricter. They must have passed laws to improve the quality of medicines. But no, what kind of laws did the government pass actually? Read this article from the Hindustan Times from August 2023. Bill to ease penalties for low-quality drugs passed in Parliament.
The government wants that if a company made drugs of low quality, then the penalty being imposed on it should be lower. Jan Vishwas Bill decriminalises minor offences committed by companies. Public health activist Dinesh Thakur said that it is wrong and that such offences should not be decriminalised.
But the most problematic thing was that the government amended Section 27D of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act. If a company fails to pass the lab test, earlier, they could have been sentenced to 1-2 years of imprisonment. But now, an out-of-court compromise is enough. They can pay to get rid of the matter. Glenmark and Cipla weren’t the only ones to fail their lab tests and ‘donate’ money through electoral bonds.
Maharashtra’s FDA issued 6 notices to the company Hetero for substandard drugs. 3 of these were about their Remdesivir medicine. And the others were for an antifungal drug, a bacterial infection drug, and the Itbor capsule. The former Joint Commissioner of Drugs tells us that if there are so many violations by a company, then the manufacturing licence of the company should have been cancelled.
But what happened here? The company quietly recalled the medicines and bought electoral bonds. At that time, BRS was in power in Telangana. The Hetero group donated ₹1.2 billion to BRS through these electoral bonds. The founder and chairmen of the company were even given Rajya Sabha seats by BRS. When BJP came back to power in Maharashtra in 2022, they encashed bonds worth ₹150 million from this company.
Can you believe how long this list of scams is? Today, I have talked about only pharma-related companies. And look at PM Modi’s shamelessness. When he is asked about electoral bonds, he says that there were some imperfections. “Systems aren’t always perfect. There can be shortcomings.
These shortcomings can be improved upon.” He tried to take the credit of how it was only because of Modi, that we can now see the flow of funds. “Because Modi created the electoral bonds, you can now look for the money trail of who paid how much and to whom. The electoral bond was a secret political funding method. And when the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional and struck it down, only then did we find out who paid how much to whom. The truth is that, had the Supreme Court not declared it unconstitutional, they would have continued this scheme behind the curtains.
I would like to thank Project Electoral Bond for this Blog, the collaborative effort of Newslaundry, Scroll, The News Minute, and other independent journalists. They did all these investigations and reported on them, because of which I am able to tell you everything. I am just a secondary source here. Those hard-working journalists are the primary source, who found out everything through their investigations. Overall, the pharma companies donated ₹9.45 billion to the political parties
