Make Me A Party
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
www.hemenparekh.in / blogs
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