electoral bond

Bonds, big money and an imperfect democracy

In a well-functioning democracy, fighting an election would need neither extravagant funding nor electoral bonds to be bought in secrecy

Why in news ? 

1 The electoral bonds scheme that has been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of India, was supposed to end the financing of elections with black money.

2  If this had happened, Indian politics would have been transformed with great benefit to the nation.

3 . Elections continue to be fought with an increasingly larger amount of illegal funds being spent by political parties and candidates.

Gap between the professed and the actual

जिसने पैसा दिया है काम उसी का होगा

1 Elected leaders, mainly serving the interests of those who finance their elections, hardly represent the interests of their constituency. 

2 . The vast majority of people see that they hardly gain benefit from government policies while vested interests corner most of the gains from development. 

3 It is in the design of the policies — the packaging is cleverly done to make policies appear to be in the national interest.

4  In fact, vested interests are defined as national interest. 

5 They take precedence प्रधानता over the interests of the marginalised sections.

किस प्रकार से चीज प्रभावित हो रही हैं

For instance, if poverty, unemployment, ill health and poor educational standards persist, these are said to be natural and are left to market forces. 

🍁Concessions are granted to businesses to provide these services through the market which results in the inability of the poor to afford them while simultaneously leading to growing disparities. 

🍁Concessions also reduce the availability of resources with the public sector so that it is unable to provide these services at the requisite level. 

🍁Inadequate public services hurt the interests of the marginalised sections.

🍁 For instance, the recent Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) shows that 40% of children in the age group of 14 to 18 years are unable to read, write or do the level of math of standard two.

🍁 They cannot acquire higher skills which could enable them to end their poverty.

🍁 So, why does education not receive high priority? That is because in the top down model of development, resources are preempted by the elite.

undeclared incomes which constitute the black economy

1 Businesses, not satisfied with the gains that they make legally, resort to making them illegally using undeclared incomes which constitute the black economy. 

2 Illegality is systematic and systemic. But, that is only possible if policymaker and executive become party to the subversion विनाश  of the systems. This is the triad that underlies black income generation.

3 It requires weak accountability by government personnel, which is at the root of the weakness of democracy in India and its hollowing out. 

Money and the election

भारत के चुनाव की असली कहानी

1 To win votes, political parties slice and dice the electorate along these lines like caste, religion etc .

2 Vote banks are cultivated and the constituents bribed just prior to an election. 

3 Campaigning is conducted by paid workers and crowds are mobilised to attend rallies and meetings using money, transportation and food.

4  Big rallies are held to overwhelm voters, for which posters and cutouts are required, musclemen hired and the media kept happy.

5 All this requires a lot of money — far more than the permitted election expenditure limit of ₹95 lakh for a big parliamentary constituency

. People in the know say that it is more like ₹50 crore as the amount required. 

Thus, ₹49 crore a candidate has to be mobilised through illegal funds.

 Over and above this sum, a party spends large sums to organise its politics, run offices, and in mobilisation — again, most of it from illegal funds.

 electoral bonds scheme was introduce

1 The argument was that this scheme would enable political parties to get legitimate funds and that their dependence on illegal funds would decline.

2  But, right from day one, the scheme drew criticism for being opaque as  the electorate would not get to know who was financing a political party and why — for legitimate or illegal reasons. 

3 . As  big sums could only be given by businesses and the rich, their influence and manipulations were expected to increase.

4  The bonds could only be given to a political party and not to individuals. 

So, the individual continued to be in need of illegal funds. 

5 The party obtaining funds could use them for all kinds of purposes and not necessarily for elections, such as setting up offices or destabilising Opposition-led governments. Thus, the name electoral bonds was inappropriate.

6 Further, any amount of bribe could be given since the limit of 7.5% of profits was removed. 

7 Even loss-making firms could make a donation. Shell companies could be used, opening the door for foreign firms to make donations. 

8 Even though the bonds had to be encashed within 15 days, they could be traded for 14 days and then given to the intended party

.

Many of the donors did not realise that their identity would be revealed were the judiciary to declare the electoral bonds scheme to be unconstitutional. Only the experienced ones covered their tracks by making donations through shell companies or in cash. Their names may never be known. Finally, the contributions through the black money route continue, remaining the major source of funding for political parties. In effect, the electoral bonds scheme was only an additional avenue for funds that political parties received.

Cronyism uncovered

. The data show that funds were given to political parties: 

for favours from policymakers; to escape prosecution for wrong doing, and as investment for the future. 

, even political parties not in power receive funds. 

The first category enables a business to receive favours such as 

🍁manipulation of policy

🍁 or preferred treatment in policy implementation 

🍁as in for example needing environmental clearance or

 🍁getting a contract.

The second category is one where there is arm-twisting

 Given how complex rules are, some violation of rules can be detected and prosecution initiated by agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate.

 The case can then drag on so that the process becomes the punishment. 

. There may be businesses that pay money just to escape harassment.

.

आगे की राह

In a well-functioning democracy, where the political leadership is accountable, fighting an election would need neither big funding nor electoral bonds to be bought in secrecy. There would be no need of having to spend more than the expenditure limits set.

The electoral bonds scheme only highlights the growing weakness of Indian democracy.

 It could have worked in an ideal situation but then it would not have been required. It seems to have been designed to weaken the Opposition and democracy.

Source the hindu