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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Congress, BJP oppose proposal to make EC trustee of 'big' corporate funds -Bharti Jain & Subodh Ghildiyal

Congress, BJP oppose proposal to make EC trustee of 'big' corporate funds -Bharti Jain & Subodh Ghildiyal

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published Published on Mar 31, 2015   modified Modified on Mar 31, 2015
-The Times of India

NEW DELHI: The political class on Monday was a divided house on corporate houses directly picking the beneficiaries of their 'big money'.

While the big parties led by Congress and BJP favoured the present system of corporate funding during the Election Commission's national consultation here on 'Political Finance and Law Commission's Recommendations', the Left, Trinamool Congress and JD(U) plumped for a system whereby entire corporate funding is funnelled into a pool (National Electoral Trust) from where the share of each party is decided by the EC.

Such a move would hit the big parties that find favour with industry, but would prove a boon for outfits from backward states as well as the Left which are not the favourites of big business.

While Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala maintained that barring direct funding by corporate houses would encourage black money and underhand deals between industry and parties, BJP's Arun Singh sought further discussion with the six national parties and insisted that the EC first simplify the format for filing expenditure statements.

Chief election commissioner H S Brahma claimed after the deliberations that 70% of political parties favoured state funding of polls but wanted further discussion on modalities of the same.

Incidentally, EC sources admitted that even on reforms, where a broad agreement could be reached, it is for the law ministry to take a final call on implementation. "We will cull out the issues of broad consensus from the minutes of today's national consultations and forward it to the law ministry for further action," said a senior EC official.

The deliberations on Monday saw experts and political parties seeking powers for EC to make rules under the Representation of the People's Act, besides fast-track courts to try electoral offences. Among those who attended the meeting were Law Commission chairman A P Shah; ex-CECs J M Lyngdoh, T S Krishnamurthy, N Gopalaswami, Navin Chawla and S Y Quraishi; former CIC Satyanand Mishra; academicians and representatives of political parties, media and civil society.

The participants were united in demanding a law against buying of votes and proposed heavy penalties against both parties as well as media for 'paid news'. Campaigning by third parties such as NGOs or even figures like Baba Ramdev was sought to be monitored.

Some key suggestions included imposing heavy penalties against parties that default on filing electoral returns. There was even a call for barring a party from polls for five years in the event of it furnishing "false" returns.

Among the other issues debated at the consultation were how to control pre-election expenditure by political parties. It was pointed out that some parties start their big-ticket campaigns almost a year ahead of announcement of polls, whereas expenditure accounting begins only after the nomination process is over. "But there were differences on the time threshold for accounting such expenditure," said a former CEC who attended the deliberations.


The Times of India, 31 March, 2015, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Congress-BJP-oppose-proposal-to-make-EC-trustee-of-big-corporate-funds/articleshow/46752144.cms


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