New Delhi: Significant groups who have shown up as electoral bond donors have a strong foothold in the media world. If pharma companies, infra companies and mining groups stick out in the list, so does big media.
Large sections of news media, often termed the fourth pillar of democracy and expected to function as a watchdog, have passed into the hands of India’s largest corporate groups. Advertisement-driven media has been compromising its independence gradually over the years.
However, the pattern emerging, of big media owners, who are also big business, now also some of the largest donors of hefty amounts to political parties, anonymously takes the problems of independence to another level.
The Wire explores some of the linkages between media, big business and political funding the SBI and EC data has revealed. Electoral bonds could be pointers to how the information ecosystem of our country is greatly influenced by whom it is meant to interrogate.
Qwik Supply Chain Private Limited: Rs 410 Crore
As reported by The Wire on March 15, Qwik Supply Chain Private Limited, a Mumbai-based company which bought electoral bonds worth Rs 410 crore, has strong links with Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance group. According to the company information available on Zauba Corp, the company’s two present directors are Vipul Pranlal Mehta and Tapas Mitra. According to Zauba Corp, Tapas Mitra, is also the director of Reliance Oil and Petroleum, Reliance Eros Productions, Reliance Photo Films, Reliance Fire Brigades, Ral Investment Private Limited, Reliance First Private Limited, Reliance Polyester, among others.
As per the data on the EC’s website, Qwik Supply Chain made its first purchase of bonds on January 5, 2022. The second batch of purchases took place five days later, on January 10. This was followed on November 11, 2022 and a year later on November 17, 2023. All electoral bond purchases were made in bonds of denomination of Rs 1 crore each.
The Reliance media footprint with CNBC-TV18 on television screens has fast morphed onto multiple levels of media. As per Reliance Industries, they are “one of India’s largest media houses, with an omni-channel presence, bringing authentic news and wholesome entertainment to diverse Indian audiences.”
Network18 Media & Investments (Network18) is India’s “only Media & Entertainment conglomerate with presence across the full spectrum of content genres – news, entertainment, sports, movies, and live entertainment.” They speak of being committed to more investments in News18.com, Moneycontrol.com, and Voot (an over-the-top or OTT media service). Jio Cinemas with the popular cricket streaming has further strengthened its dominance over the infotainment universe.
Of late, this group is said to be preparing for an even larger media footprint. On February 28, Reliance Industries, Viacom18 Media and The Walt Disney Corporation have entered an agreement to form a joint venture “that would merge the television and digital streaming businesses of Viacom18 and Star India and create an entertainment giant in India.” A joint statement put the valuation at approximately $8.5 billion.
There have been concerns about this becoming a monopoly. Variety magazine wrote that “a combination of the two – which include rival streaming platforms, India’s leading pay-TV platform and over 100 linear TV channels – has the potential to substantially re-shape the Indian media and entertainment scene and command a 40% market share.” The new venture “will have over 750 million viewers across India and will also cater to the Indian diaspora across the world,” the companies said.
‘Laxmidas Vallabhdas Asmita Mercha’: Rs 25 Crore
Individuals have also bought electoral bonds. Of the total of 374 individuals who have bought bonds worth Rs 384 crore, as per BusinessLine, Lakshmi Mittal topped the list, but at number two is Laxmidas Vallabhdas Asmita Mercha, as per the SBI list, one of two persons who has bought bonds worth Rs 25 crore each. Assumed to be a mis-spelling for Laxmidas Vallabhdas Merchant, who is Group Controller of Reliance Industries Ltd and listed as a director with Reliance Life Sciences, and many more Reliance companies. The Reporter’s Collective has identified at least six of the companies he is director in, which enabled Reliance to takeover the media group, Network 18. Asmita Merchant is “related to” Laxmidas V. Merchant, as per public information available, analysed by the Collective.
The bonds bought by this individual donor were of Rs 1 crore each; all 25 bonds purchased on the same date, November 17, 2023.
In another instance of how different business groups exercise indirect hold over media groups, a company, Media Matrix Worldwide, in which the Reliance group has a small stake owns MN Media Ventures which purchased electoral bonds worth Rs 5 crore in November 2022, and also NexG Devices which spent Rs 35 crore on bonds in May 2019 and November 2022.
One of the board members of NexG Devices is Surendra Lunia, former Mukesh Ambani associate who sold his 29.18% stake in NDTV held by Reliance to the Adani group. This allowed the Adani group to do a hostile takeover of NDTV last year.
Now, Lunia also serves as a board member in Infotel Business Solutions, Infotel Enterprises, and Mankind Pharma which together with NexG made donations worth Rs 79 crore through electoral bonds.
Sun TV network: Rs 10 Crore
In its sealed cover declarations to the Election Commission, which were made public on Sunday, March 17, the DMK has declared that it received Rs 10 crore in donation from Sun TV Network Limited. This was received, it said, between April 5, 2021 and January 11, 2022. This was part of a haul of Rs 306 crore in this span of time.
Tamil Nadu-based Sun TV was founded by Kalanithi Maran in 1993. Two radio stations run by this mega media house, bought Rs 7 crore worth of electoral bonds on April 3, 2021. Kal Radio Limited and South Asia FM Limited purchased bonds worth Rs 3.5 crore and Rs 3.5 crore, respectively in different denominations. Sun distribution network bought three bonds of Rs 1 crore each on the same day. Assembly elections for Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal were being held at the time. Incidentally, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry voted three days after these bonds were bought.
Sun TV has 35 TV channels in six languages. It claims to reach 140 million Indian households and also has a footprint across 27 countries. It has 69 FM radio stations, three daily newspapers and six magazines. It is one of the largest DTH (Direct To Home Satellite TV) service providers in India. It has a film division called Sun Pictures. The group also owns the SunRisers Hyderabad team in the Indian Premier League (IPL) & SunRisers Eastern Cape in the South Africa T20 League.
Megha Engineering: Rs 966 Crore
One of the top two donors through electoral bonds was Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd, which incidentally also owns, albeit indirectly, one of the biggest television news networks TV9Bharatvarsh. The Hindi news channel is owned by Associated Broadcast in which the infrastructure giant is a majority stakeholder.
The channel is known for its pro-government coverage, and has mostly underplayed the coverage of the electoral bonds. According to the ECI data, Megha Engineering spent Rs 966 crore on electoral bonds between April, 2019 and January 2024. The figure may be higher if we include its unpublished donations in 2018-19.
Media groups owned by corporate groups often function as either a prestige project or a lobbying and a pressure group for its original business interests. By now, it is public knowledge that Megha Engineering has bagged multiple central and state infrastructure projects running into thousands of crores over the last few years.
In one of its recent stories, the News Minute described how electoral bonds was covered in TV9 Bharatvarsh:
Take TV9 Bharatvarsh, where Samajwadi Party spokesperson Sunil Sajan said “no big journalist” was speaking about electoral bonds or whether central agency action had influenced their purchase. “Aayega toh Modi hi, par kaise aayega Modi?” he asked. (“It will be Modi who wins, but how will he win?”). In response, anchor Gaurav Agrawal turned the discussion around to ask panellists how Modi might win the upcoming polls.
Sanjiv Goenka Group: Rs 609 Crore
The companies associated with industrialist Sanjiv Goenka that have spent hugely on electoral bonds, too, have a large media footprint. The Sanjiv Goenka group donated Rs 709 crore – Rs 609 crore through electoral bonds and Rs 100 crore through electoral trusts – in political funding since May 2019.
ECI data reveals that the Sanjiv Goenka group bought electoral bonds through its five companies – Haldia Energy Ltd, Dhariwal Infrastructure Ltd, Philips Carbon Black Ltd, known as PCBL from 2022 onwards, Crescent Power Ltd, and RPSG Ventures.
RPSG Ventures that spent Rs 3 crore in electoral bonds directly owns Open, an English weekly magazine, Editorji, a digital news platform, and Fortune India. The last few years have seen Open taking a decidedly pro-BJP stand. The Open Media Network removed its political editor Hartosh Singh Bal, who was critical of the Narendra Modi government. Its former editor Manu Joseph had then claimed that Sanjiv Goenka had told him that Bal’s views was “making a lot of political enemies” for the business group.
Besides these news platforms, the group also owns lifestyle magazines like Esquire, and the to-be-launched Hollywood Reporter.
Yet another curious case is of the Goa-based influential business group Dempo Industries. The company, along with its subsidiaries, spent Rs 1.5 crore on electoral bonds. The company, which has interests in ore mining, shipbuilding, food processing and other things owns the Navhind Times, a leading daily in Goa and Navprabha, a Marathi daily.
Interestingly, the company is also under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate.