An investigation by The Quint has revealed that the much-hailed electoral bonds, which were to have ushered in an era of taint-free financing for political parties, carry a secret number “visible on the right top corner of the original document showing fluorescence when examined under Ultra Violet (UV) Light.” The saga of electoral bonds started with the Budget […]
Year: 2018
As Number of Murdered RTI Activists Rises to 67, It Is the Modi Government That Needs to ‘Act Rightly’
When conscientious and well-meaning citizens are attacked for “acting rightly”, is the government “acting rightly” by not doing enough to safeguard them? Yet another Right to Information (RTI) activist in Gujarat has paid with his life for demanding transparency. On March 9, Nanjibhai Sondarva (35), a resident of Manekvada village in Kotda Sangani taluka of Rajkot district, was […]
Politicians or political parties cannot buy votes if voter is not for sale, says ADR chairman
Politicians or political parties cannot purchase votes if the voter is not for sale, noted Chairman of the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) Prof Trilochan Sastry while stressing on level of awareness amongst voters about the consequences of electoral malpractices which promote corruption and bad governance. The Odisha Election Watch that organised a convention here […]
How Some States are Subverting the Rule of Law to Drop Criminal Cases Against Politicians
The spate of withdrawal of pending criminal cases against politicians in UP, Rajasthan, MP and Kerala in recent months points at the overpowering stranglehold of the political establishment on all the organs of governance. “No legislature in India, including its parliament and all the state assemblies, has any member with a criminal case pending against […]
Hidden in Budget 2018, Blatant Subterfuge on Political Funding
The proposed amendment to the already repealed FCRA 1976, tucked away in the last page of the Finance Bill, is akin to trying to conduct a heart or liver transplant on a person who has been dead for seven years. “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action,” Ian Fleming is reported […]
Electoral Trusts Mostly Benefit Ruling Parties, Need to Cap ‘Donations’ for Transparency
With the introduction of electoral bonds, Electoral Trusts are no longer required to reveal the name(s) of the party to which donations are given. If a government makes policy, budget allocations or tax rules that favour donors over the public, we will not even know who the donors were. Behind all the debates on election […]
Jaitley’s Electoral Bonds Are Proof That Political Parties Are Sovereign in India and Not the People
Political parties are often able to exercise supreme power with impunity, even while blatantly defying statutory authorities. A dictionary defines ‘sovereignty’ as “the quality or the state of being sovereign, or of having supreme power or authority; supreme or independent power or authority in government as possessed or claimed by a state or community”. So […]
Much Ado About Nothing: Electoral Bonds and an Unapologetic Lack of Transparency
The new scheme to buy electoral bonds seeks to ‘cleanse the system of political funding’, but without revealing the names of donors. The day that everyone interested in political and electoral funding had been waiting for since February 2, 2017, finally arrived on January 2. It took the finance minister and all the bureaucrats under […]