Political
Diary
New Delhi, 31 January 2017
Black: Colour Of
Polls
WHO WILL BELL THE
CORRUPT CAT?
By Poonam I Kaushish
Paisa phenko tamasha dekho! The song hummed by every Party as five States go
to polls next month. Which has paid put to Prime Minister Modi’s war cry of
eradicating corruption. After all black
is the favourite colour of money which are netas love and worship! Sic.
Raising a moot point: In a
democracy based on equality for all why is kala dhan ok for our polity, not us?
Can the State have double standards? Allow leaders to blithely accept black
money as ‘donations’ to finance their campaigns and bribe voters, knowing it is
the fountainhead of sleaze.
Think. According to Section 13A of the Income Tax Act
Parties are exempt from declaring the source of a donation, scrutiny, tax and
subsequent investigation if the deposited amount is below Rs 20,000 in their
bank accounts. These include ‘income from house’, ‘income from other sources’
and voluntary contributions received from any person.
Naturally Parties happily use this lacuna to launder black
money by putting it in their bank accounts and saying they got it (less than Rs
20,000) from small donors. Besides, it is not difficult to make backdated
donation receipts. Shockingly, Parties of all shapes and colours, including
those who tom-tomed swatchhtha and
transparency got contributions worth over Rs 6,800 crores from “unknown”
sources between 2004-05 and 2014-15. Read black money.
In fact, according to an Association for Democratic Reforms
report the total financial performance of the Parties was over Rs 11,000
crores. Of this the ruling Congress netted Rs 4,000 crores or 83 per cent from
faceless donors. The BJP followed with Rs 3,273 crores or 65 per cent from
small donors.
Consequently, with its coffers filling up with small
contributions, the seven national Parties (BJP, Congress, Trinamool, NCP, CPM,
CPI and BSP) received a total of only Rs 102.2 crores from 1,744 donations
above Rs 20,000 donations in 2015-16, compared to Rs 528.67 crores the previous
year. Thereby, showing an 84 per cent dip in collection.
The ruling BJP declared Rs 76.85 crores as donation in
2015-16 against Rs 437.35 crores in 2014-15. The Congress got Rs 20.42 crores,
CPM Rs 1.81 crores, CPI Rs 1.58 crores and the Trinamool got Rs 65 lakhs. More
scandalous, the BSP which collected Rs 764 crores said they didn’t receive any
donations over Rs 20,000 while the NCP showed the maximum decrease of 98 per
cent in donations, declaring Rs 71 lakhs compared to Rs 38.82 crores in
2014-15.
Surprisingly, Kejriwal’s AAP which rode to success on the
plank of eliminating corruption in political funding along-with the Left
Brigade made hay by receiving 57 per cent of its Rs 110 crores funds from small
donors. And the CPM 53 per cent of its total of Rs 893 crores in 11 years.
Pertinently, the report underscored that black money
publicly runs through the veins of all Parties. Worse, it was impossible to
declare whose contribution it was without first cleaning up the “number two” monopoly.
“Is kale dhan ke hamam mein hum sab nange
hain,” confessed a senior BJP leader.
Who will bell this fat cat of electoral corruption? The
tragedy of India
is none. Astonishingly,
even as Modi purported notebandi was
to end corruption, his Sarkar rejected
an Election Commission proposal last month to give it permanent powers to
cancel elections on credible evidence of abuse of money.
Earlier in March the Delhi High Court had wanted Parties to
maintain proper audited accounts of income received through voluntary
contributions. If this is not done, it warned, Parties could not claim
exemption from paying income tax on these contributions. But it was water of a
duck’s back with Parties continuing to ignore and play hard ball.
Primarily, because elections are perceived as a “rentier”
profession, with huge post-poll rewards, to amass wealth for themselves, future
elections and their Parties. Aren’t we accustomed to a corrupt and
unaccountable polity who could stoop to anything for paisa and gaddi?
Any wonder the economics of running an election campaign are
a hush-hush affair. Reportedly, over Rs 30,000 crores was spent by the
Government, Parties and candidates in the 2014 general elections, the most
expensive till date.
Like politics, elections have become a business --- like
businessmen our netas in the election
business balk at the idea of controls and regulations. That is why no Party,
however vocal about the matter while in opposition, has made a sincere attempt
at stanching the flow of black money into the electoral arena.
Who will bell the fat corruption cat? One way is to
prescribe a ceiling for Parties’ expenditure, like for candidates. Two, state
funding of Parties (not polls) with independent audit and a ban on private
donations, three, set up an Rs 5000 crores Government fund over five years for
part funding of candidates spending. The election account of all candidates and
Parties should be open to public to help remove public perception that through
illegal donations business and the political class are promoting a quid pro
quo.
Alongside the spending by recipient Parties should be
equitable over constituencies so as to further democratize conduct of elections
and attract more capable but less affluent persons to contest. Five, set up an independent
national election fund where all tax-free donations could be made. It could be
operated by the Election Commission or any other independent body.
The EC should be empowered to supervise all financial
transactions by political bodies that have solicited or spent money to support
or defeat candidates. Moreover, it should verify these and disclose the same to
the public. This would be akin to the US set-up under
the Federal Election Campaign Act 1974 which created an enforcement agency
called the Federal Election Commission to do so. The EC would have full
authority to oversee the inflow and outflow of political finance and institute
legal action if scrutiny is stone-walled.
Moreover, according to the International Institute for
Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) Handbook 2003 in nearly 60 countries,
including the US, UK, Japan,
France, Germany and
Thailand Parties are bound to disclose all contributions beyond a specified
threshold. Unsurprisingly, India
is not among them.
Further, there exists a ban on making anonymous donations to
Parties in more than 45 countries. Obviously, India again is not among them
even though it has a provision for public disclosure of expenditure by
candidates but even so, there is no ceiling on party election expenditure —
only candidates’ expenses. This leaves enormous scope for gargantuan indirect
spending on elections so merrily admitted to by various leaders who brag about
the crores spent on their elections against the stipulated limit of Rs 28
lakhs.
Arguably when we have a model code of conduct for elections
why not a model code for political finance? All in all we need to remove clouds
of opacity of political funding which would go a long way in enhancing public
faith and demonstrating a concern for ethical standards.
Our netas and
Parties need to collectively break loose from criminal elements, unaccounted
and excessive money power and to remove illegitimacy from the power game. Our
Prime Minister needs to white-wash black! Will our netas follow his dictum and like ‘Caesar's wife be above
suspicion’? ----- INFA
(Copyright, India News and Feature
Alliance)
|