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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | What's wrong with electoral bonds -Bishwajit Bhattacharyya

What's wrong with electoral bonds -Bishwajit Bhattacharyya

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published Published on Apr 23, 2017   modified Modified on Apr 23, 2017
-The Hindu Business Line

These bearer instruments can’t make political funding transparent; they don’t address the insidious corporate-politico nexus

The Government is all set to introduce a scheme offering political bonds as bearer instruments which will conceal the identity of the bond buyers and enable a process of political donations that, it argues, will make funding political parties transparent.

The argument is deeply flawed. Electoral bonds as envisaged here open up yet another route to further the unholy nexus between corporate houses and political parties, which that has been at the root of high level corruption in the country. If the Government was genuinely looking for a solution that it claims has eluded us for 70 years, then this is certainly not it.

Opaque practices

Consider a situation: A large corporate, ‘A’, plans to donate a very large sum to a party, ‘B’, in power but wants no attention from regulators, anti- corruption laws or the judiciary. The Government enacts a law that blacks out the identity of the donor ‘A’. Neither ‘A’, the donor, nor ‘B’, the receiver, is required to share details of the so-called donation. The deal done, the Government goes on to dole out largesse to corporate ‘A’, well surpassing the value of the “donation” so received.

This comes within the realm of possibility, indeed probability, with no upper limit set of the donations that can be made by a donor entity.

So even if the bonds are issued by banks, encashable only into the designated accounts of political parties within a strict time limit, the scheme says nothing about the kind of nexus that will drive such donations. Moreover, this is likely to happen in a highly skewed manner, tilting the political playing field and making it worse because the donor-donee arrangement has no transparency but all the fig leaf of a formal transaction under a scheme that “fights” corruption!

It is worth pointing out that in April 2014, the US Supreme Court had struck down the upper limit of political donation. India is now following suit with a worse model: transparency is being given a go-by and the worry is that crony capitalism will be institutionalised.

This is the full implication of what has been proposed in Budget 2018 through the device of electoral bonds. The proposal, inter-alia, says: “... political parties continue to receive most of their funds through anonymous donations which are shown in cash... donors have also expressed reluctance in donating by cheque or other transparent method as it would disclose their identity and entail adverse consequences...”

Please click here to read more.

The Hindu Business Line, 21 April, 2017, http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/whats-wrong-with-electoral-bonds/article9657087.ece?homepage=true


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