Yesterday’s Bloomberg web
site carries following report :
“ India's Top Court to Examine Modi's Political
Funding Plan “
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s attempt to eliminate
corruption in election funding has landed in the country’s
top court amid allegations that the measures will lead to a spike in anonymous
political donations.
The Supreme Court of
India on Tuesday agreed to hear a public
interest litigation, akin to a class
action suit, that challenges
the introduction of electoral bonds and seeks a ban on
cash donations to political parties.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra
sought replies from the finance and law ministries, apart from the poll panel.
The court hasn’t fixed a date for next hearing.
In the annual budget speech this February, India’s Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley introduced "electoral bonds"
as a measure designed to cleanse the funding to political parties.
Unlike debt instruments, these bonds resemble promissory notes
backed by the nation’s central bank, which allow donors to pay political
parties with banks as an intermediary.
The government had
also cracked down on cash donations reducing the permissible amount to 2,000
rupees ($31) from 20,000 rupees limit earlier.
A petition filed by
a non-government organization, Association For Democratic Reforms, said the attempt to clean
up political donations had opened the " floodgates to unlimited corporate
donations" and "anonymous
financing ".
"The consequence of these amendments is that now the annual
contribution reports of political parties need not disclose the names
and addresses of those contributing by way of electoral
bonds," according to the petition, adding that the measure will lead
to creation of shell companies.
A study by ADR based
on an analysis of funding of the six national and 51 regional political parties
showed nearly 70 per cent of the 113 billion rupees in party funding over an
11-year period came from unknown sources, according to income tax returns of
parties.
Dear Hon Chief Justice Shri Dipak Misraji :
I request you to take
cognizance of my following blog ( sent as Email to NDA Ministers ) in this matter and forward it
to ,
·
All the Political
Parties
·
Central + State Governments
·
Election Commission
·
Association for Democratic Reforms
And ask them to submit their views on my proposal , through an
affidavit , before 31 Dec 2017
Thursday, 6 July 2017
Transparency in Political Funding ?
Economic Times ( 06 July ) carries a report titled :
“ Political Funding Next on Radar : FM “
As per this report , Shri
Jaitley said :
================================
“ We are looking at some major
steps to be announced by which we want to cleanse the entire political funding in India
For the last 70 years, the world’s largest democracy has
survived on funding which really brings no credit to the democracy and I think
it has been the prime minister’s insistence that this has to be one of the
subjects that the government has to take up now as a top priority “
We are aware of some modest reforms ( electoral bonds / cap on cash payments ) that Shri Jaitley introduced in the last budget
But no one believes that these reforms go far enough ( -
including CEC ! )
Millions of Indians ( but no political party ) want ALL donations , irrespective of the
amount involved , to be by official / transparent channels ( cheque / Online
Payment etc ) , and want mandatory filing of
INCOME / EXPENSE statements with CEC !
I request Shri Jaitleyji to consider following suggestion :
STRUCTURE
· No direct donations ( even Rs 5 ) by anyone to any Political
Party or to any Political Leader ( even as birth-day gift ! )
· Creation of a CENTRAL ELECTION FUND ( CEF )
, controlled / administered by the Central Election Commission
· Donations can only be given to CEF – and only by cheque / online etc ,
quoting Aadhar number
· Donations will get tax exemption
as CSR
· CEC will publish , on its web site
, a continuous / dynamic / daily ACCOUNT of
amounts received ( with Aadhar No of each donor ) and amounts spent / disbursed
by CEC to Political Parties / Candidates ( with full details of each )
· From CEF , Election Commission will distribute FUNDS to
political parties for fighting elections / other expenses , on predetermined ‘ Occasions ‘
PROCESS
· Funding of Political Parties by CEC ( from CEF ) , can be made as per
following two alternatives :
[ A ] AFTER THE
ELECTION ( CANDIDATE – based
Reimbursements ) :
# After each Election ( Central / State / Municipal ) ,
ALL candidates contesting the election ( including independent candidates ) ,
shall submit to CEC , a STATEMENT
of EXPENSES incurred
in fighting the election.
Even if a group of parties have come together to fight the
election ( MahaGathBandhan
), each candidate will get linked to ONE party
only
# Statement will be as per format decided by CEC , giving category-wise expense
details ( all payments listed in the statement , must be through legal /
official channels , such as Cheque / Electronic Bank Transfer / Mobile Wallets
etc )
# There will be UPPER
LIMITS of REIMBURSEMENT for
each category of expense and an overall limit
# The statement will also show the “ Sources of Funds “ ( with full details
such as OWN or borrowed from
CLOSE RELATIVEs , with names )
# Actual amount to be reimbursed to each candidate , will
be computed based on a number of factors , main factor being the “ percentage of popular votes polled “ by that candidate ( no
reimbursement for those candidates who get less than 5 % of popular vote )
# Actual re-imbursements made by CEC , shall not be counted as INCOME of that candidate
, for Income Tax
purpose
[ B ] BEFORE THE
ELECTION ( PARTY – wise ADVANCES ) :
# Before each election , All recognized Political
Parties will get ADVANCES from
CEF , computed using a TRANSPARENT , mathematical formula , based on following factors :
# FACTORS with POSITIVE WEIGHTAGE :
· In all the elections since
independence ( Central + States + Municipal ) , percentage of popular votes polled by each party in those
elections along with the percentage of
seats won by each party
· Number of years for which the party
has been recognized by CEC
· Cumulative number of “ Days “ ( not
months or years ) , each party was in
power ( Centre + States + Municipality ) since independence
· No ( or percentage ) of seats “ won “ in each election
# FACTORS with NEGATIVE
WEIGHTAGE :
· No of MPs / MLAs having criminal cases pending against them
· No of times candidates / parties were
“ warned “ by CEC ( for any
reason )
· No of years for which Annual
Return NOT filed with EC
· No of candidates / Legislators
convicted by a Court
=================================
DEAR SHRI JAITLEYJI :
Above mentioned suggestion , is by no means , comprehensive
You may want to consider a HYBRID
MODEL which is a combination of the alternatives listed above
It is important that all the figures / data used in the FORMULA , are supplied only by the Election Commission and the Speakers of various legislatures – and made public
Since there is no way political parties will reach a consensus on my suggestion , best way
would be to publish an online SURVEY
QUESTIONNAIRE and ask citizens to vote / rate , against each item
of suggestion and then publish the FINDINGS (
on ALL government web sites ) , on a continuous basis
It would be too much to expect the Political Parties to accept
this reform without building up pressure from 800 + million voters .
You may even consider a REFERENDUM !
04 Oct 2017
