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 !
07 July 2017
www.hemenparekh.in
/ blogs
