The Wire Wrap Episode 4: Electoral Bonds, BJP’s Lok Sabha Picks, Paper Leaks

On episode 4 of The Wire Wrap, The Wire's Sravasti Dasgupta is joined by The Wire's Founding Editor M.K. Venu and senior journalist Javed Ansari.
The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) filed a contempt petition in the Supreme Court on Thursday after the State Bank of India (SBI) disobeyed the apex court's deadline of March 6 to furnish details of electoral bonds. In its order last month, the Supreme Court while declaring electoral bonds as "unconstitutional" had directed the SBI to furnish a list of names of those who had purchased electoral bonds for their favoured political parties. The SBI on the other hand has sought time till June 30-well after the Lok Sabha elections end-to furnish these details.
Earlier this week the BJP released its first list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections which included 195 names and only 28 women. While 34 central ministers were retained, the list saw exclusions in the form of Nitin Gadkari among ministers and other controversial MPs like Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, Ramesh Bidhuri.
Paper leaks and cancellations continue to jolt job aspirants in Uttar Pradesh with the RO and ARO exams being cancelled earlier this week and the Yogi Adityanath government postponing the exams. With over 50 lakh aspirants being affected by paper leaks in the state, unemployment once again emerges as the single biggest issue affecting the youth.
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