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Political Funding - Why can't Corporate Houses Think Out of Box? 

Tejinder Singh Bedi

Media reports have been abuzz that the BJP has got Rs 210 Crore through Electoral Bonds as political donations during the year 2017-18. The information is based upon a reference to details submitted by the Election Commission of India to the Supreme Court. This is stated to be 95 % of the total amount received by all the political parties through the same process during the last year. 

Senior Advocate, Rakesh Dwivedi appearing on behalf of the Election Commission in a hearing by a bench of CJI Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjeev Khanna of the apex court on a petition by the Association for Democratic Reforms seeking transparency in the anonymity of donations through such bonds has brought out a two page note , which shows that in 2017-18, 520 bonds worth 222 Crore had been issued by the State Bank of India, of which 511 bonds worth Rs 221 crore had already been redeemed. The BJP too has shown a receipt to the effect of redemption of Rs 210 crore with all the other parties clubbed together having redeemed just Rs 11 crore. The receipts for the Congress party through electoral bonds is limited to Rs 5 crore against Rs 210 crore by the BJP during 2017-18. Even in the cash component of donations received from small donors limited to Rs 20,000 per donor the receipts of BJP stand at Rs 342 crore against Rs 141.50 crore by the Congress. The figures do not yet include the fresh receipts during 2018-2019 - being the pre-general election year, though.

In all the BJP is reported to have has amassed Rs 997 crore and Rs 990 crore through overall political donations in the years 2016-2017 and 2017 -2018 respectively. The receipts are also pegged at five times more than the other largest party i.e the Indian National Congress's receipts during the same period. The figures do not yet include the fresh receipts during 2018-2019 - being the pre-general election year, though.

While the process of political donations from the big Corporate house has been a traditional practice for many decades and altered through Electoral Bonds only lately since 2018 - there is a great logic in making it completely transparent to the common electorate and not just the Apex Court, which has now asked for the details to be furnished in a Sealed Envelope within May 30 at the latest.

The Supreme Court has rightly passed its interim directions asking ALL political parties to provide complete information on each and every political donor and the contributions received through electoral bonds till date while terming the issue as 'weighty' and fit for an in-depth hearing. 

Although the scheme of raising political funds through anonymity legalized by the current government's policy framework covers all parties equally, irrespective of the fact that BJP may have got the lion's share since its launch, it remains very much in the interest of the electorate or the common man to be fully aware as to what kinds of Corporates are supporting what kinds of political ideologies in the country for it to make duly informed choices as much as the sources of huge funds reaching the political parties.

Despite best possible efforts of the present government, news about the recovery of huge sums of money in cash keeps propping up in all the electronic channels raising doubts on the inability to curb circulation of black money from the system still.

Although the petitioner NGO, the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) had challenged the validity of the scheme and had sought that the issuance of electoral bonds be stayed by the SC, the apex court did not accept the same but has specifically observed that it would also like to examine the changes made in Income Tax law, electoral law and the banking laws in detail to make them in consonance with the same and that it will ensure that the balance does not tilt in favor of any political party. It has also directed the Finance Ministry to reduce the window of purchasing electoral bonds during April- May from 10 days to five days adding that it would fix a date or final disposal of the petition filed by the NGO later. 

The bench had earlier also observed that if the identity of the purchasers of electoral bonds meant for transparent political funding was not known, the efforts of the government to curtail black money in elections would be "futile". While the Center through its AG has been supporting the scheme Senior Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the NGO has maintained that it has nothing to do with the effort to curb black money and that it opens the banking means also to donate by remaining anonymous. The EC, represented by senior lawyer Rakesh Dwivedi, has also opposed the Centre's submissions saying the secrecy allowed in the electoral bonds scheme 'legalizes anonymity'. 

In its affidavit, the Centre has maintained that electoral bonds 'attempt at bringing greater transparency, ensuring KYC compliance and keeping an audit trail in comparison to the earlier opaque system of cash donations'. AG, Venugopal has also said the anonymity of donors of electoral bonds is to be maintained for various reasons such as fear of repercussions on a firm or an individual if the other political party or group wins. 

It may be recalled here that the government had notified the Electoral Bond Scheme 2018 on January 2, last year. As per provisions of the scheme, electoral bonds can be purchased by any person, (singly or jointly) who is/are citizens of India or incorporated or established in the country. However, it is only the political parties registered under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 as have secured, not less than one percent of votes polled in the last general election to the House of the People or the Legislative Assembly of the State, that are eligible to receive electoral bonds. Further, such electoral bonds can be encashed by an eligible political party only through a bank account with an authorized bank only. 

In the past among all the major political parties, first the Congress and lately the BJP have been the major beneficiaries of most political donations. However, none of these parties inspire seasoned corporate professionals at all if one were to look at the kinds of people these ever pick as their candidates from the corporate sector too. The agenda of most Corporate houses for supporting these parties is to plant political leadership in both houses of the parliament and even the State legislatures to be able to drive or lead changes in policy frameworks as can suit the growth of their businesses without much hassles in governance. Our present Lok Sabha has 545 seats and our State Assemblies have another 4139 seats. This would mean around 9000 legislative seats to be fought for every five years or say 990 or say 1000 Lok Sabha Constituencies to be covered every five years. If as a very rough estimate it is believed that these parties may be generating Rs 4000 to 5000 crore of political funds over a five-year tenure of any government, the amount averages to Rs 5 crore per Lok Sabha constituency including the State Legislature seats so converted for averaging expense per seat. This is still much higher than the cap of overall expenses fixed by the EC for small to big Lok Sabha constituency at 54 to 70 lakh. 

Since all political parties continue believing and practicing they cannot identify even bare minimal candidates from among professionals from the organized or the unorganized corporate sectors to be brought into our lawmaking bodies, can the bigwigs and the corporate czars here listen to my message and start supporting seasoned and experienced professionals - as have gone through the challenges of dealing with the bureaucratic pressures in ensuring world class and benchmarking work practices in their respective domains than just blindly anonymously supporting one or the other party, which are all by now under tremendous pressure of projecting only the stinking rich or community or caste supported clean or dishonest, even candidates with long criminal history to keep ruling the best brains in the nation's highest direct GDP contributing sectors still.