Political
Diary
New Delhi, 30 March
2021
Election Bonds
SSHHH……ABOUT POLL
SLUSH!
By Poonam I Kaushish
Paisa
phenko tamasha dekho!
The song hummed by every Party as five States are amidst polls with all opening
their war chests to ‘fund’ their vacuous promises. After all, money makes the
clogged and corrupt political mare go around, and how!
Primarily, as
elections are perceived as a “rentier” profession, with huge post-poll rewards,
to amass wealth for themselves, future polls and their Parties. Aren’t we
accustomed to a corrupt and unaccountable polity who would stoop to anything
for paisa and gaddi? Any wonder the
economics of running an election campaign are a hush-hush affair.
They continue to be
so as the Supreme Court dealt a severe blow to transparency by rejecting Association
of Democratic Reforms (ADR) application seeking stay of sale of electoral bonds
during the ensuing polling as it was antithetical to a healthy electoral democracy,
fundamentally designed to tilt money power in favour of the governing Party and
legalised route for faceless donors to secretly provide limitless funds to Parties
along-with reservations expressed by Election Commission and Reserve Bank.
Recall, to end the
corruption scourge and bring transparency in electoral funding the NDA Government
in 2018 mooted electoral bonds sold by SBI which allowed anonymous donations
(individuals, companies, NGOs, trusts) ranging from Rs 1,000 to Rs 1 crore to a
Party, which could exchange them for
cash.
Since March 2018 till
date over 12,924 bonds worth Rs 6534.78 crores have been sold. According to ADR
more than half of various Parties income came from these. Interestingly, of the
Rs 2760.20 crores in 2019, the BJP got Rs 1660.89 crores or 60.17%, the
remaining shared by others.
Pertinently, the EC
opposed bonds as a “retrograde step” as it would have “serious impact” and
reduce transparency in political funding by legalizing large unknown
contributions as Parties are exempt from disclosing donations via bonds which could
potentially lead to donations from prohibited sources, Government companies and
foreign businesses. Also, it would be
impossible to determine whether donations came from companies breaking the law,
State-owned public sector units or foreign sources, resulting in these gaining “overt”-influence
over elections
Moreover, prior to
these bonds, Parties had to disclose donors who gave over Rs 20,000. Besides, bonds
are opaque as they don’t provide citizens any details even though Government
has all details. The Sarkar’s
explanation that bonds bought at SBI would be “white” does not hold good as
anonymity makes it impossible to keep a check on who is funding a Party.
Further, the
Government for reasons best known to it, also dispensed with checks that
ensured only profitable companies which existed over three years could donate.
This prevented shell companies being set up to help “round-trip” money or
whitewash it by giving it to Parties, while also bribing them in the process.
Alas, electoral bonds
have failed to fulfill its objectives. Namely, stop generation and use of black
money, nor stop use of money power. Worse, it did not decrease corruption or get
Parties to submit their audited accounts regularly. Succinctly, it botched up
the much-hyped and promised transparency.
Undoubtedly, bonds lack
vision in respect of who buy them and whether disclosure of the source of money
is obligatory on those who purchase them. Asserted a former Election
Commissioner, “Bonds and donations are welcome but they could be an easy way to
launder black money if disclosure of the source is not made mandatory.
Transparency on political funding, as in the West, is a must before exemption
is allowed.”
Shockingly, a Bengal
candidate bragged he spent over Rs 10 crores instead of Rs 30 lakhs allowed.
Hypothetically, the minimum needed by each Party for 294 Assembly seats would
be Rs 2940 crores. Multiplied by 10 candidates per constituency, it totals mind-boggling
Rs 29,400 crores. Are we to believe the money is collected by bonds?
The way forward? State
funding of elections and funds apportioned on vote basis secured by candidates.
Alternatively, State funding of Parties with EC prescribing a ceiling for
Parties’ expenditure, like for candidates, donations should be evenly spread,
not necessarily equally, but in some proportion to seats in Parliament. To
ensure this, a compulsory social audit of political funding by EC is necessary or
by a group of auditors shortlisted by CAG alongside ban on private donations.
Monies should be
released to candidates, not Parties and 50% given as advance pre-election on
past performance basis. Government should constitute Rs 5000 crores fund over
five years for part-funding candidates spending. Election account of candidates
and Parties should be open to citizens to
remove public perception of our politicians promoting a quid-pro-quo through
illegal donations and businesses.
Spending by recipient
Parties should be equitable over constituencies to further democratize
elections thereby attracting more capable but less affluent people to contest.
An independent national election fund be constituted where all tax-free
donations could be made. It could be operated by the EC or any other
independent body.
The EC should be
empowered to supervise all financial transactions by political bodies which have
solicited or spent money to support/defeat candidates. Additionally, it should
verify these and disclose them to the public. This would be akin to the US
set-up under the Federal Election Campaign Act 1974 which created an
enforcement agency, Federal Election Commission to do so. The EC would have
full authority to oversee inflow and outflow of political finance and institute
legal action if scrutiny is stone-walled.
Furthermore, 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.
Also, 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 there is no ceiling on Party
election expenditure. This leaves enormous scope for gargantuan indirect spending
on polls as admitted by various MPs who brag about crores spent on their
elections against the stipulated limit of Rs 70 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.
In a milieu where are
netagan have much to lose and the
public everything to gain by a transparent funding system, unless one
determines sources that should be legally tapped for Party expenses there is
little hope of minimizing the evil influence of vested interests. Clearly, we
have a long way to go before we can make elections free and fair as Parties
will continue to stonewall all efforts to come clean on funding.
Thus, irrespective of
whether a Party is in power, donations or bonds must be made public as people
have the right to know whether a Party’s stand on a policy is influenced by the
source of its funding. Time to end bhrashtachaar.
Our netas and Parties need to
collectively break loose from unaccounted and excessive money power from the
power game. Else our netagan’s accusations
against rivals of scams and scums will remain empty blabber! ------ INFA
(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)
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