TRANSPARENCY TOO , MUST BE PERCEIVED !

Milan Vaishnav  got it right  !

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Rest are barking up the wrong tree  !

Today’s Hindustan Times carries following news report :

EC to push for cap on poll expenses of political parties

 

Proposal in nutshell :

“The Commission has proposed to the law ministry that a ceiling may be stipulated on election expenditure by political parties towards Parliamentary or Assembly elections.

It had proposed that such ceiling should be either 50% of or not more than the expenditure ceiling limit provided for the candidate multiplied by the number of candidates of the party contesting the election.”

Milan Vaishnav(mvaishnav@gmail.com /https:milanvaishnav.com ) commented as follows :

“The loophole on party expenditure has made individual limits on spending farcical. The issue is with enforcement.

Given the difficulties of monitoring and enforcement, it is not clear how limits on parties will be more efficacious than limits on candidates.

I would prefer a situation where contributions were made more transparent and spending limits were relaxed. But the government has made the former ever more opaque,”

My misgivings :

If this goes through , is it likely that each party may ask more than one of its members to contest each seat ? May be 10 party-candidates for each seat ?

But this is so obvious that the finally accepted proposal will also limit that each party can put up only ONE candidate per seat . No brainer  !

The root cause of all the “ extravagant / un-documented / un-reported “ , election related expenses is :

Un-accounted / Un-restricted  ( BLACK MONEY  financed )  PARTY-FUNDING

As I had feared , recently introduced ELECTORAL BONDS have miserably failed in addressing this fundamental / structural WEAKNESS  ( - some say intentional loophole )

The only foolproof way to rectify this situation and make it totally transparent is to implement my following suggestion ( sent as Email to Cabinet Ministers / NITI Aayog / PM-EAC / Election Commissioner / Political Party Chiefs etc ) , is :

Transparency in Political Funding ?  [  06  July  2017  ]

Make Me A Party  ………………………….. [  03  Oct  2017  ]

 

So  Much  for  Transparency   !        [  03  Jan  2018  ]

 

Don’t Disclose Donations [ 3 D ]       [  04  Jan  2018  ]

 

 

Given the fact that all political parties ( including BJP ) are opposed to bringing themselves under RTI , I do not expect them to come forward and support my idea !

 

And as far as the Election Commission is concerned , I don’t blame it for throwing up its hands , since it cannot even get the parties to follow “ Model Code of Conduct “

 

Our only hope is some “ Judicial Intervention “ by the Supreme Court

( supremecourt@nic.in  )

 

22  Aug  2018

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs