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Title: A vote for state funding
(Electoral bonds cannot clean up campaign finance)
• Corporate donations constitute the main source of election funding in India which is awash with black money.
• In 2008, using the provisions of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the Central Information Commission allowed disclosure of income tax returns of political parties.
• In his 2017 Budget speech, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley noted that even 70 years after Independence the country had not been able to evolve a transparent method of funding political parties which is vital to the system of free and fair elections.
• Anybody can buy electoral bonds in the form of bearer bonds from specified branches of the State Bank of India and donate it anonymously to a political party of their choice; the party must cash the bonds within 14 days.
• the Election Commission (EC), the Income Tax department and the voter would remain in the dark about it.
• Electoral bonds cannot address the problems that arise from the corporate control over politics and corporate capture of government policies and decisions. Rather, electoral bonds will result in unlimited and undeclared funds going to certain political parties which will be shielded from public scrutiny as the balance sheets will not show which party has been the beneficiary of this largesse.
Electoral bonds must be seen in conjunction with:
(1) Lifting of the maximum limit of 7.5% on the proportion of the profits a company can donate to a political party, thus opening up the possibility of shell companies being set up specifically to fund parties;
(2) Amendment of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA)
(3) The refusal of political parties to come under the RTI Act in order to conceal their sources of funding
(4) All registered parties were required to disclose to the EC the identity of individuals and private entities donating more than ₹20,000 every year.
(5) The decision to reduce cash contributions from ₹20,000 to ₹2,000 is a step in the right direction, but the net effect is debatable, since it could prompt parties to take smaller cash donations, and therefore not declare their source.
Vocabulary words:
- Opacity (noun) = Lack of transparency, Haziness (अस्प्रष्टता)
- Subversion (noun) = Destruction, End (विनाश)
- Quantum (noun) = Quantity, Amount (मात्रा)
- Legitimate (adjective) = Legal. Judicial (क़ानूनी, वैध)
- Dispensation (noun) = exemption from a rule or usual requirement
