According to the Association for Democratic Reforms, the country’s seven major political parties collected more than Rs 3000 crore in the last financial year.
Also worth noting is that more than 66 percent of this money came from unknown sources. The total amount collected is Rs 3,289 crore. Out of which 2,172 crore received from unknown sources.
The audit report submitted by various political parties to the Election Commission recently revealed that the BJP’s collection in the last financial year was Rs 1,917 crore. Next in the list are Trinamool Congress (R 545 crore), Congress (Rs 541 crore), CPM (Rs 162 crore), NCP (Rs 75 crore), BSP (Rs 43 crore), CPI (Rs 2 crore).
It should be noted that Rs 1,161 crore BJP alone received from unknown sources! The figure is more than any other team’s total collection.
The biggest weakness of Indian democracy is corruption of politics and funding of politics.
It is this disorder that prevents political parties from becoming democratic. The election system is falling apart.
Elections to Assembly and Lok Sabha are being conducted from panchayats/municipalities in writing but allegedly there is little reflection of people’s opinion and aspirations.
More regrettably, there is no guarantee as to how long the representatives elected on the symbol of a particular party will remain on that party’s side.
Because it can be seen that immediately after taking the oath, some elected members are flocking to other parties.
A candidate who blamed other party, two days after winning, he is not ashamed to join the same party.
Some elected representatives are doing this crime just for the lust of power, knowing that the matter is disgusting.
From small village panchayats and municipal councils to the assembly and the Lok Sabha, almost all the ‘houses’ are filled with such ‘gaddars’.
Depending on them, the board or the government is thrown out or the political balance is destroyed.
It is a consistent assumption that huge sums of money is behind this game. Therefore, the civil society has been moving for a long time to demand an end to the black money game in the polls.
Narendra Modi came to power in 2014 promising to crack down on all forms of corruption. For this purpose in 2018, then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced Electoral Bond Scheme. On January 3, through a circular, the center informed that any person or corporate body can finance the political party of their choice by buying a bond worth Rs. 1 thousand, 10 thousand, 1 lakh, and 1 Cr.
Who is buying these bonds and for what purpose its remains secret. Disclosure of donor’s identity is not mandatory even for payment of less than 20 thousand rupees to any party.
Perhaps, no other country has such a bizarre system. Civil society raised questions several times about the transparency of this new system from the beginning.
In response, Jaitley claimed that the system of payment of election contributions through bonds would be very transparent.
Transparency will come in the use of money in elections.
From March 2018 to last October, State Bank sold electoral bonds worth Rs 10,246 crore from its 29 authorized branches.
Low-denomination bonds were rarely sold. 93.5 percent of bonds worth Rs 1 crore have been sold. It is clear here that political parties are raising huge amounts of money legally but in complete secrecy.
BJP, the ruling party at the center, is taking advantage of this strange system.
No doubt, they are becoming wealthy. Other parties are also getting more or less in the same way . But should this system continue in the long run? The question is of civil society.
The Election Commission should verify whether the black money game in politics, especially in the election system, has decreased or increased?
