The recent Supreme Court directions aimed at curbing the use of unaccounted cash during polls, as reported in
, remind us that we are still fighting the symptoms of a diseased system rather than curing it. While the Court's focus on cash is necessary, the real issue is the persistent shadow economy of political funding that has persisted even after the scrapping of Electoral Bonds.
I have long argued that as long as political parties rely on private, opaque, or even "semi-transparent" donations, the influence of money will continue to corrupt the democratic process. My "prior art" in this domain—stretching back to 2017—has consistently advocated for a total replacement of the current donation model with a Central Election Fund (CEF).
The Failure of "Patchwork" Transparency
Since the electoral bond era ended, we have seen a surge in donations through Electoral Trusts. While these are theoretically more transparent than anonymous bonds, they still create a distance between the donor and the party, making the "quid pro quo" trails difficult to trace. We are effectively playing a game of "hide and seek" with public information, where the data exists in fragmented pieces but is never usable for real-time accountability.
The Solution: The Central Election Fund (CEF)
To truly end the influence of black money, we must move to a system where no political party receives a single rupee directly from a donor. Instead, I propose the following structure:
| Feature | Proposed Reform: Central Election Fund (CEF) |
|---|---|
| Direct Donations | Zero. All donations go to the CEF, not to parties/leaders. |
| Donor Identity | Mandatory Aadhar linkage; all contributions via digital channels. |
| Transparency | The ECI publishes a daily, dynamic, and public account of every donor and disbursement. |
| Disbursement | The ECI allocates funds to parties based on a transparent, mathematical formula. |
| Accountability | All candidate expenses are reimbursed by the ECI post-election against digital statements. |
Incentivizing Integrity
Under my proposed CEF framework, funding is not just a handout; it is tied to performance and adherence to democratic norms. Factors such as the percentage of popular votes polled, the number of years recognized, and even negative weightage—such as having candidates with pending criminal cases or failing to file returns—would dictate the allocation.
By removing the "donor-party" link entirely, we eliminate the root cause of corruption. Until we are willing to overhaul the plumbing of political funding rather than just sweeping the "cash" under the rug, we will continue to see these same headlines cycle every election season. It is time for a system that puts the voter's right to transparent democracy ahead of the party's need for private influence.
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