– An article by Maj Gen Anil Verma (Retd) (Head of ADR) and Ms Shelly Mahajan (Program and Research Manager (Political Party Watch) at ADR) There is a need for intervention to ensure healthy electoral competition and to diversify the sources of political funding. Otherwise, it is always the citizens at large who end up […]
Let’s aim for transparent funding trails and reduced influence of money on poll outcomes While “political party” is not entirely absent as a mention in India’s Constitution, it finds space only in the 10th Schedule, which was added in 1985, brought about by the introduction of an anti-defection law. Otherwise, could it be that the […]
Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi admitted on live TV that the repealed FCRA 1976 was amended retrospectively to save BJP and Congress from prosecution. The current saga of the FCRA (Foreign Contributions (Regulation) Act), the latest episode of which happened on April 11, 2018, started in January 2013. It is revealing to look at developments in […]
Contrary to the finance minister’s assurance in the Budget speech, amendments to the Finance Bill ensuring anonymity to the donor as well as the receiver will only add opacity to political donations. The current government must be commended on its consistency and persistence, though in a perverse way. Finance minister Arun Jaitley’s Budget speech had a separate […]
While the Budget’s effort to include electoral funding issues is commendable, a closer look at the provisions tells a different story. In a significant departure from past practice, the Budget announced by finance minister Arun Jaitley on February 1 had a separate section on ‘Transparency in Electoral Funding’. The ‘Key Features of Budget 2017-2018‘ put out […]
The government appears to be seeking to counter news reports that are critical of the planned amendment to the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act. Since The Wire broke the story of the proposed surreptitious amendment of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act 2010 (FCRA) to let the BJP and Congress off the hook for illegally accepting donations from foreign companies, there has […]