To Become A Moral Nation Begin by breaking the nexus of politics and black money that’s at the heart of our current malaise

To Become A Moral Nation

Begin by breaking the nexus of politics and black money that’s at the heart of our current malaise

Pavan K Varma 

We may be the world’s largest democracy, but the tragedy is that most Indians equate the practice of our democracy with the absence of idealism. For a nation whose founding father was a man of the moral stature of Mahatma Gandhi, this is indeed a great fall.
    The link between unaccounted money and political parties is at the heart of our current malaise. What is worrying is the blatancy with which what is wrong is accepted as both normal and inevitable. In fact, most people believe that there is nothing that can be done in the matter. This cynical assumption needs to be interrogated, because there is a way forward which can allow some framework of rectitude so that future generations can retain their faith in the democratic system.
    Scores of committees have been set up by the government to find a solution, but their output has remained confined to proposals, ideas and intentions. This is because most political parties and politicians have no overriding motivation to change the current system of which they are the biggest beneficiaries. But there is a core group of proposals which are doable and feasible, and I am listing them for discussion and debate.
    Firstly, the current practice which allows parties not to identify donors contributing less than Rs 20,000 must be scrapped. This is the principal (but not only) channel for parties to collect vast amounts of undeclared funds. Reliable estimates indicate that 85% of the ‘donors’ to political parties are faceless. The answer is that every paisa given as a donation to political parties must be accounted for and transacted through auditable and transparent bank transactions. Conversely, all payments made by political parties must be made through banking channels. This has also been recommended by the core committee on electoral reforms sponsored by the Election Commission (EC). Our vaunted powers in IT should be
harnessed to devise a common online accounting framework, leaving as little space as possible for political parties to hide income and expenditure.
    Secondly, all political parties must compulsorily make public their audited accounts every year. Currently candidates are required to disclose their assets and liabilities but not political parties. This has been proposed by the EC as far back as 2004, with the recommendation that the auditing may be done by any firm ofauditors approved by the CAG.
    Thirdly, the EC or the enforcement authority it designates should have powers to monitor and scrutinise party funds. If any unaccounted transaction is traced, the giver and the receiver should be penalised. If a party worker, on behalf of the party, or on his own behalf, collects funds for the party which are not reflected in the mandatorily established system of financial transparency, and the allegation is established, he or she would be required to be expelled from the party and forfeit the right to fight elections for the next six years, and the party should be issued a show-cause notice to explain its role in the matter.
    Fourthly, culpability with regard to illicit funding transactions, if established on more than three occasions, should render a party liable to be deregistered. Similarly, a false declaration of accounts should entitle the EC to derecognise a party after giving it a reasonable opportunity to show cause. This has been recommended by the Law Commission, and endorsed by the EC.
    Fifthly, any judicial appeal from a finding by the EC should be dealt with without any further court of appeal by fast-track courts/special election tribunals established for this purpose. They would be required to give their verdict within a maximum time limit of six months. Their setting up under Article 329 (B) of the Constitution has been recommended by the EC.
    Sixthly, the Right to Information Act (RTI) must be extended to all political parties with respect to their financial accounts. Since all transactions would be electronically recorded, it would not be difficult for parties to give information to any RTI query, including the identity of a donor and the amount contributed. The public has a right to know.
    Seventhly, with such a system in place the ceilings on donations, which in any case are breached by covert practice, should be abolished. Equally, the current ceiling on expenditure by individual candidates on elections must be revisited. Everybody knows that the current ceiling is almost universally breached in actual practice, thereby devaluing the law itself. It is time to end this hypocrisy.
    The above measures are ready for implementation. They have been recommended by the EC and other official committees. While more needs to be done with regard to other issues such as the increasing criminalisation of politics, it is important to make a first beginning. This will then pave the way for the comprehensive electoral reforms bill which has been pending before Parliament for the last two decades. Ultimately, change will come about only when public pressure compels it. Otherwise, the establishment has little incentive to initiate change on its own. Indian democracy must come to grips with what is wrong within it, and allow for long-delayed and much-needed reform. We cannot be the world’s largest democracy and also one of the world’s most corrupt political systems. 

Public pressure can impel a clean-up.
    The writer, an author and former diplomat, is currently adviser to the Bihar chief minister.