Electoral bonds did not live up to the expectation, it has become necessary to make the system of political donations transparent

As the general elections of 2024 are getting closer, the issue of donations to political parties is heating up once again. A major discrepancy or problem of democracy is related to the money, which is sent to parties, leaders and candidates silently, without any written education, i.e. black money, which runs major political events of the country, political rallies, meetings, election campaigns. This money is used to woo and entice the candidates as well as the voters. Ever since the practice of donating to political parties through electoral bonds has started, there has been a significant increase in the amount received by political parties. This has been revealed from the details of income made public by seven national and twenty-four regional political parties of the country. An analysis of the details by ADR shows that electoral bonds account for 55.9 per cent of the total amount of donations received by political parties at Rs 16,347 crore since the Electoral Bond Scheme was launched in 2017-18. The share of corporate donation is only 28.7 percent and the amount received from other sources is only 16.03 percent.

Winning elections at any cost has become a common feature of politics today. If someone wins an election, however wrong and however petty the methods he may have adopted, whatever tactics he may have resorted to, he does not see anything wrong, he does not feel guilty, he believes that his crimes have been covered. Whereas democracy flourishes only when the elections are honest, free, fair and transparent. Double politics is the most dangerous character for democracy and the result of such character is a new form of political donation called electoral bonds. Corporate donors can buy such bearer bonds and make anonymous donations to political parties. RBI issues electoral bonds. Donor to political parties will be able to buy bonds from the bank and the donor will be able to give bonds to any party. How will control and transparency on political donations be possible? The problem seems to be getting deeper.

Significantly, in the year 2017, by making changes in the Finance Act, the compulsion for the companies to give 7.5 percent of the total profit of three years to the election donation was abolished. After that, there is a trend of decrease in corporate donations and increase in donations from electoral bonds. Electoral donations have increased by 748 percent (from 2017-18 to 2021-22), while corporate donations have increased by only 48 percent. This much can be said from this trend that the amount of corporate donations is now shifting towards bonds. Apparently, the change in rule has done away with the compulsion for companies to spend part of their white earnings in election donations. Due to lack of transparency, they have started finding it convenient to oblige political parties with electoral bonds. Without the cooperation of the industry, it is not possible to get such a huge amount in the share of electoral bonds. The fact is also that there is no provision to disclose who has given how much amount to which party through electoral bonds. The BJP getting Rs 5271.97 crore (52 per cent), the Congress Rs 952.29 crore (61.54 per cent) and the Trinamool Congress Rs 767.88 crore (93.27 per cent) from electoral bonds in the last six years only reflects the convenience of the donors. This could have been considered a good practice, provided the entire process was transparent, but such transparency is not seen for the convenience of political parties.

The aim of most of the politicians has become just to somehow win the elections and gain power. Money is poured like water to win the election and after coming to power, all tricks are adopted to make money. Squeeze the country’s wealth as much as you can for yourself. The country is losing hundred rupees and we are getting one rupee, so we are doing this without stopping for a moment. Corrupt conduct and behavior no longer torments us. Everyone has made their own personal principles, the definition of corruption has been made new. The ‘trio’ of politicians-businessmen-middlemen gives food and water to the roots of deep-rooted corruption in the country. To end corruption, it is necessary to break this trio. One of the objectives of the electoral bond system was to end corruption in politics, so why was the arrangement made to keep political parties away from transparency in funds? The political parties who keep drawing swords in every talk take care of their economic interest and loss together. Thus it is difficult to eliminate corruption.

Ignoring long term values ​​for the fulfillment of immediate political goals has become the central idea of ​​the current political culture. The criminalization of politics has happened during this process. Earlier only Congress was considered guilty of this, but today hardly any political party is saved from it, which is not stained. At one time, Ram Manohar Lohia used to call Congress as ‘Gangotri of corruption’. But which party today is practicing probity in public life? The sad thing is that now the culprits of corruption are not even ashamed. This kind of political character has become a serious problem before the country. This mentality and corrupt behavior of politics has polluted the whole democracy and the whole system. Public interest is only in self-interest and self-praise, this thinking has made a home in our politics. This disease is gripping politics in such a way that every politician is doing everything for himself instead of the public.

Limiting the cash donation of Rs 20,000 to Rs 2,000 and advocating transparency in donations, what thought did the government come up with electoral bonds? This has further increased the power of the corporate world to influence our politics through donations. The share of the corporate world in the donations received by the political parties has increased. Earlier, there was a legal limit on the political donations that companies could make, now they are allowed to make unlimited donations in the form of electoral bonds and are allowed to keep their details hidden, so who will control the political parties – the public and the workers, or the moneylenders?

Politicians do not work for social upliftment rather they have a very narrow destination in front of them, “of votes”. It is paramount to adopt such a strategy, which can get them power again and again. The politics of vote and the policy of social upliftment in true form, both are opposite poles. One unites the nation, the other disintegrates. Now that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is active towards strengthening democracy, the same should be reflected in his efforts, policies and plans. May there be a difference between their words and actions? While advocating to control political funding and making it transparent, where did electoral bonds come from? Because the question here is not so much of double standards as of the attitude of the political class towards constitutional institutions and democratic values. At this time every political party wants that when it is in power, it should not be restrained by anyone, neither by any constitution, nor by law, nor by any kind of democratic dignity. She remembers all these only when she is out of power. By telling all your evils and shortcomings as the evils and weaknesses of the system, get rid of them and escape cleanly. It is necessary to stop the efforts to corrupt democracy in the name of political donations.

-Lalit Garg

(The author is a senior journalist and columnist)