Dear Shri Yechuryji,
From a news report in Times of India ( 03 Feb ) , I
understand that you have filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the
Electoral Bond Scheme introduced by the Government
In your petition , you say :
The scheme should be scrapped as it
would lead to greater political corruption
I am unaware if you have offered , for consideration
by the Government / all Political Parties / the donors / the Voters and
the Election Commission , any ALTERNATIVE SCHEME
If not , I request you to consider my following
suggestion ( already sent to NDA Cabinet Ministers / NITI Aayog etc ) for such
an alternative
With Regards,
hemen
parekh / Mumbai
(
M ) +91 - 98,67,55,08,08
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 aTRANSPARENT , 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 theSpeakers 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 onlineSURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE and
ask citizens to vote / rate , against each item of suggestion and then publish
theFINDINGS ( 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 /
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