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14-01-2015 23:59
http://www.business-standard.com/article/printer-friendly-version?artic...
how much gets spent in fighting elections is hardly a well-kept state secret.
It is easy to see what such electioneering lets loose. A person who has spent Rs 5 crore in getting elected
will want to recoup that principal, plus inflation plus a reasonable return to create a corpus with which to
fight for his re-election. Thus, in five years he will want to making close to Rs 10 crore in black money or
more. If legislators who rule the country face this kind of compulsion to generate black money for their
own political future, how can they be expected to put in place a system that will bring an end to the
generation of black money?
It is, therefore, unsurprising that there is a big hole in the rules on permissible election expenses. While
there is a cap on what a candidate can spend for his election, nothing like that exists for political parties.
What is more, donations up to Rs 20,000 are not treated as donations and can be reported without any
details. So all that a party needs to do to account for, say, Rs 1 crore, is to claim that it received it in the
form of 500 donations of Rs 20,000 each!
Other rules, in this regard, are either of minuscule size and consequence (companies can now officially
make political contributions) or routinely flouted (filing returns on expenses within 90 days of an
election). There is no attempt to change the rules where they matter. The entire political class, across
parties, is complicit in this.
subirkroy@gmail.com
14-01-2015 23:59