Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 73
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Code Context


        trigger_error($message, E_USER_DEPRECATED);

    }
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 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php.'
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deprecationWarning - CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311
Cake\Http\ServerRequest::offsetGet() - CORE/src/Http/ServerRequest.php, line 2421
App\Controller\ArtileDetailController::printArticle() - APP/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line 73
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Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 120
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Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
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Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51
Cake\Http\Server::run() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 98

Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 74
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Code Context


        trigger_error($message, E_USER_DEPRECATED);

    }
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 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php.'
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deprecationWarning - CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311
Cake\Http\ServerRequest::offsetGet() - CORE/src/Http/ServerRequest.php, line 2421
App\Controller\ArtileDetailController::printArticle() - APP/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line 74
Cake\Controller\Controller::invokeAction() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 610
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 120
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51
Cake\Http\Server::run() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 98

Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Code Context
            if (Configure::read('debug')) {

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    <link rel="canonical" href="https://im4change.in/<pre class="cake-error"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67fd77cb14cc7-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67fd77cb14cc7-trace').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none');"><b>Notice</b> (8)</a>: Undefined variable: urlPrefix [<b>APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp</b>, line <b>8</b>]<div id="cakeErr67fd77cb14cc7-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67fd77cb14cc7-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67fd77cb14cc7-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67fd77cb14cc7-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67fd77cb14cc7-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr67fd77cb14cc7-code" class="cake-code-dump" style="display: none;"><code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB"></span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">head</span><span style="color: #007700">&gt;
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The audited balance sheets of the six largest political parties in India are hard to get and harder to decipher: they hide more than they reveal but are nonetheless worth close examination. Between them, the Congress, BJP, BSP, SP, NCP and CPM reported total income of Rs 1,046.76 crore for the year ending March 31, 2009. That was the year in which most of the funds for the 2009 Lok Sabha election were collected and deployed.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The Congress reported total income of Rs 496.88 crore, expenditure of Rs 274.75 crore and net profit of Rs 222.13 crore in fiscal 2009. The BJP showed total income of Rs 220.02 crore. Between them, the Congress and the BJP have 322 MPs in the 15th Lok Sabha. What does it cost an MP to mount a successful election campaign for a Lok Sabha seat? Best estimates from independent sources - and from the Election Commission (EC) itself - put the figure at an average of Rs 10 crore per MP. Taking into account the two parties&#039; winning and losing candidates, actual expenditure by the Congress and the BJP in the 2009 Lok Sabha election would have been far in excess of their combined audited income of Rs 716.90 crore. Clearly, the Congress and the BJP need to generate a significant amount in cash to fill the official funding gap in an election year as well as pay the administrative costs of running national political organisations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 28 state assembly and seven Union territory elections and at least one Lok Sabha poll during every five-year cycle - a minimum of 36 elections overall, or more than seven elections a year. The annual electoral funding gap is therefore large. Where does this money - all of it black - come from? Three sources: one, off-balance sheet cash donations by large and medium companies seeking quid pro quo favours from MPs when elected, leading to a corrupt political-business nexus. Two, wealthy individual donors, again in return for post-dated political favours. And three, scams.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Scams are of several kinds: illegal commissions from public-private partnership infrastructure projects, mining leases and arbitrary land acquisitions; leakages from social sector schemes like MNREGA where party middlemen skim off the cream; irregular allocation of natural resources (including telecom spectrum); and inflated civic projects in large events such as the Commonwealth Games. This vast infrastructure of corruption can only be dismantled with targeted electoral reforms.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In recent weeks, politicians cutting across party lines have rediscovered the primacy of Parliament in democracy. They have shown great concern for following due process on parliamentary legislation and, as the prime minister stated, ensuring that all new laws are passed within the framework of the Constitution. This concern for the purity of parliamentary democracy is at odds with the state of Parliament itself. Shockingly, 76 MPs - including 13 Congress and 19 BJP MPs - in the current Lok Sabha (14% of its total strength) have serious criminal charges framed against them by a court of law. These are not politically motivated charges. They include, as per affidavits filed with the EC, &amp;quot;murder, rape, kidnapping, extortion, forgery, bribery, dacoity and causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons&amp;quot;. When 14% of our lawmakers are charged as lawbreakers, Parliament stands undermined. The presence of tainted elected Lok Sabha MPs poses a greater threat to Indian parliamentary democracy than any number of unelected citizen-activists.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Since there is no practical way to limit the use of black money in election funding, two specific electoral reforms are necessary to cleanse Parliament. First, the EC must have the power to deregister (it currently only has the power to derecognise) a political party which gives tickets in a Lok Sabha or assembly election to candidates with criminal chargesheets framed by a trial court, implying prima facie malfeasance. The law ministry has already begun drafting a Bill that proposes changes in the Representation of People&#039;s Act. The amendment would disallow candidates charged with criminal offences punishable with a jail sentence of more than five years from contesting any election. To weed out politically motivated charges, there will be a caveat: such charges should have been framed at least a year before the date of filing nominations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Second, the EC must impose strict tenure limitations (say, five years) on the post of party president of every registered political party, with all related family members included in the mandated five-year ceiling. This will mitigate the damaging feudalism that has made many of our parties function like family dynasties, allowing unprofessional hierarchies to flourish.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
During the forthcoming monsoon session, Parliament will discuss a slew of reformist legislation including the Lokpal Bill. But the Lokpal Bill is only one of several electoral and governance reforms that should be on Parliament&#039;s agenda. Making the CBI autonomous and implementing the 2006 Supreme Court directive on police reforms are both long overdue. The Judicial Standards and Accountability and Right to Justice Bills are equally vital for delivering swift, fair justice. The people&#039;s will is sovereign; Parliament is subordinate to that will. A Lok Sabha tainted by 76 criminally charged MPs undermines that will, diminishes parliamentary democracy and sullies the Constitution. 
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&lt;em&gt;The writer is an author and chairman of a media group.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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The audited balance sheets of the six largest political parties in India are hard to get and harder to decipher: they hide more than they reveal but are nonetheless worth close examination. Between them, the Congress, BJP, BSP, SP, NCP...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The audited balance sheets of the six largest political parties in India are hard to get and harder to decipher: they hide more than they reveal but are nonetheless worth close examination. Between them, the Congress, BJP, BSP, SP, NCP and CPM reported total income of Rs 1,046.76 crore for the year ending March 31, 2009. That was the year in which most of the funds for the 2009 Lok Sabha election were collected and deployed.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Congress reported total income of Rs 496.88 crore, expenditure of Rs 274.75 crore and net profit of Rs 222.13 crore in fiscal 2009. The BJP showed total income of Rs 220.02 crore. Between them, the Congress and the BJP have 322 MPs in the 15th Lok Sabha. What does it cost an MP to mount a successful election campaign for a Lok Sabha seat? Best estimates from independent sources - and from the Election Commission (EC) itself - put the figure at an average of Rs 10 crore per MP. Taking into account the two parties&#039; winning and losing candidates, actual expenditure by the Congress and the BJP in the 2009 Lok Sabha election would have been far in excess of their combined audited income of Rs 716.90 crore. Clearly, the Congress and the BJP need to generate a significant amount in cash to fill the official funding gap in an election year as well as pay the administrative costs of running national political organisations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 28 state assembly and seven Union territory elections and at least one Lok Sabha poll during every five-year cycle - a minimum of 36 elections overall, or more than seven elections a year. The annual electoral funding gap is therefore large. Where does this money - all of it black - come from? Three sources: one, off-balance sheet cash donations by large and medium companies seeking quid pro quo favours from MPs when elected, leading to a corrupt political-business nexus. Two, wealthy individual donors, again in return for post-dated political favours. And three, scams.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Scams are of several kinds: illegal commissions from public-private partnership infrastructure projects, mining leases and arbitrary land acquisitions; leakages from social sector schemes like MNREGA where party middlemen skim off the cream; irregular allocation of natural resources (including telecom spectrum); and inflated civic projects in large events such as the Commonwealth Games. This vast infrastructure of corruption can only be dismantled with targeted electoral reforms.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In recent weeks, politicians cutting across party lines have rediscovered the primacy of Parliament in democracy. They have shown great concern for following due process on parliamentary legislation and, as the prime minister stated, ensuring that all new laws are passed within the framework of the Constitution. This concern for the purity of parliamentary democracy is at odds with the state of Parliament itself. Shockingly, 76 MPs - including 13 Congress and 19 BJP MPs - in the current Lok Sabha (14% of its total strength) have serious criminal charges framed against them by a court of law. These are not politically motivated charges. They include, as per affidavits filed with the EC, &amp;quot;murder, rape, kidnapping, extortion, forgery, bribery, dacoity and causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons&amp;quot;. When 14% of our lawmakers are charged as lawbreakers, Parliament stands undermined. The presence of tainted elected Lok Sabha MPs poses a greater threat to Indian parliamentary democracy than any number of unelected citizen-activists.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Since there is no practical way to limit the use of black money in election funding, two specific electoral reforms are necessary to cleanse Parliament. First, the EC must have the power to deregister (it currently only has the power to derecognise) a political party which gives tickets in a Lok Sabha or assembly election to candidates with criminal chargesheets framed by a trial court, implying prima facie malfeasance. The law ministry has already begun drafting a Bill that proposes changes in the Representation of People&#039;s Act. The amendment would disallow candidates charged with criminal offences punishable with a jail sentence of more than five years from contesting any election. To weed out politically motivated charges, there will be a caveat: such charges should have been framed at least a year before the date of filing nominations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Second, the EC must impose strict tenure limitations (say, five years) on the post of party president of every registered political party, with all related family members included in the mandated five-year ceiling. This will mitigate the damaging feudalism that has made many of our parties function like family dynasties, allowing unprofessional hierarchies to flourish.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;During the forthcoming monsoon session, Parliament will discuss a slew of reformist legislation including the Lokpal Bill. But the Lokpal Bill is only one of several electoral and governance reforms that should be on Parliament&#039;s agenda. Making the CBI autonomous and implementing the 2006 Supreme Court directive on police reforms are both long overdue. The Judicial Standards and Accountability and Right to Justice Bills are equally vital for delivering swift, fair justice. The people&#039;s will is sovereign; Parliament is subordinate to that will. A Lok Sabha tainted by 76 criminally charged MPs undermines that will, diminishes parliamentary democracy and sullies the Constitution. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The writer is an author and chairman of a media group.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
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The audited balance sheets of the six largest political parties in India are hard to get and harder to decipher: they hide more than they reveal but are nonetheless worth close examination. Between them, the Congress, BJP, BSP, SP, NCP and CPM reported total income of Rs 1,046.76 crore for the year ending March 31, 2009. That was the year in which most of the funds for the 2009 Lok Sabha election were collected and deployed.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The Congress reported total income of Rs 496.88 crore, expenditure of Rs 274.75 crore and net profit of Rs 222.13 crore in fiscal 2009. The BJP showed total income of Rs 220.02 crore. Between them, the Congress and the BJP have 322 MPs in the 15th Lok Sabha. What does it cost an MP to mount a successful election campaign for a Lok Sabha seat? Best estimates from independent sources - and from the Election Commission (EC) itself - put the figure at an average of Rs 10 crore per MP. Taking into account the two parties&#039; winning and losing candidates, actual expenditure by the Congress and the BJP in the 2009 Lok Sabha election would have been far in excess of their combined audited income of Rs 716.90 crore. Clearly, the Congress and the BJP need to generate a significant amount in cash to fill the official funding gap in an election year as well as pay the administrative costs of running national political organisations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 28 state assembly and seven Union territory elections and at least one Lok Sabha poll during every five-year cycle - a minimum of 36 elections overall, or more than seven elections a year. The annual electoral funding gap is therefore large. Where does this money - all of it black - come from? Three sources: one, off-balance sheet cash donations by large and medium companies seeking quid pro quo favours from MPs when elected, leading to a corrupt political-business nexus. Two, wealthy individual donors, again in return for post-dated political favours. And three, scams.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Scams are of several kinds: illegal commissions from public-private partnership infrastructure projects, mining leases and arbitrary land acquisitions; leakages from social sector schemes like MNREGA where party middlemen skim off the cream; irregular allocation of natural resources (including telecom spectrum); and inflated civic projects in large events such as the Commonwealth Games. This vast infrastructure of corruption can only be dismantled with targeted electoral reforms.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In recent weeks, politicians cutting across party lines have rediscovered the primacy of Parliament in democracy. They have shown great concern for following due process on parliamentary legislation and, as the prime minister stated, ensuring that all new laws are passed within the framework of the Constitution. This concern for the purity of parliamentary democracy is at odds with the state of Parliament itself. Shockingly, 76 MPs - including 13 Congress and 19 BJP MPs - in the current Lok Sabha (14% of its total strength) have serious criminal charges framed against them by a court of law. These are not politically motivated charges. They include, as per affidavits filed with the EC, &amp;quot;murder, rape, kidnapping, extortion, forgery, bribery, dacoity and causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons&amp;quot;. When 14% of our lawmakers are charged as lawbreakers, Parliament stands undermined. The presence of tainted elected Lok Sabha MPs poses a greater threat to Indian parliamentary democracy than any number of unelected citizen-activists.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Since there is no practical way to limit the use of black money in election funding, two specific electoral reforms are necessary to cleanse Parliament. First, the EC must have the power to deregister (it currently only has the power to derecognise) a political party which gives tickets in a Lok Sabha or assembly election to candidates with criminal chargesheets framed by a trial court, implying prima facie malfeasance. The law ministry has already begun drafting a Bill that proposes changes in the Representation of People&#039;s Act. The amendment would disallow candidates charged with criminal offences punishable with a jail sentence of more than five years from contesting any election. To weed out politically motivated charges, there will be a caveat: such charges should have been framed at least a year before the date of filing nominations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Second, the EC must impose strict tenure limitations (say, five years) on the post of party president of every registered political party, with all related family members included in the mandated five-year ceiling. This will mitigate the damaging feudalism that has made many of our parties function like family dynasties, allowing unprofessional hierarchies to flourish.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
During the forthcoming monsoon session, Parliament will discuss a slew of reformist legislation including the Lokpal Bill. But the Lokpal Bill is only one of several electoral and governance reforms that should be on Parliament&#039;s agenda. Making the CBI autonomous and implementing the 2006 Supreme Court directive on police reforms are both long overdue. The Judicial Standards and Accountability and Right to Justice Bills are equally vital for delivering swift, fair justice. The people&#039;s will is sovereign; Parliament is subordinate to that will. A Lok Sabha tainted by 76 criminally charged MPs undermines that will, diminishes parliamentary democracy and sullies the Constitution. 
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&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;The writer is an author and chairman of a media group.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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The audited balance sheets of the six largest political parties in India are hard to get and harder to decipher: they hide more than they reveal but are nonetheless worth close examination. Between them, the Congress, BJP, BSP, SP, NCP...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The audited balance sheets of the six largest political parties in India are hard to get and harder to decipher: they hide more than they reveal but are nonetheless worth close examination. Between them, the Congress, BJP, BSP, SP, NCP and CPM reported total income of Rs 1,046.76 crore for the year ending March 31, 2009. That was the year in which most of the funds for the 2009 Lok Sabha election were collected and deployed.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Congress reported total income of Rs 496.88 crore, expenditure of Rs 274.75 crore and net profit of Rs 222.13 crore in fiscal 2009. The BJP showed total income of Rs 220.02 crore. Between them, the Congress and the BJP have 322 MPs in the 15th Lok Sabha. What does it cost an MP to mount a successful election campaign for a Lok Sabha seat? Best estimates from independent sources - and from the Election Commission (EC) itself - put the figure at an average of Rs 10 crore per MP. Taking into account the two parties&#039; winning and losing candidates, actual expenditure by the Congress and the BJP in the 2009 Lok Sabha election would have been far in excess of their combined audited income of Rs 716.90 crore. Clearly, the Congress and the BJP need to generate a significant amount in cash to fill the official funding gap in an election year as well as pay the administrative costs of running national political organisations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 28 state assembly and seven Union territory elections and at least one Lok Sabha poll during every five-year cycle - a minimum of 36 elections overall, or more than seven elections a year. The annual electoral funding gap is therefore large. Where does this money - all of it black - come from? Three sources: one, off-balance sheet cash donations by large and medium companies seeking quid pro quo favours from MPs when elected, leading to a corrupt political-business nexus. Two, wealthy individual donors, again in return for post-dated political favours. And three, scams.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Scams are of several kinds: illegal commissions from public-private partnership infrastructure projects, mining leases and arbitrary land acquisitions; leakages from social sector schemes like MNREGA where party middlemen skim off the cream; irregular allocation of natural resources (including telecom spectrum); and inflated civic projects in large events such as the Commonwealth Games. This vast infrastructure of corruption can only be dismantled with targeted electoral reforms.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In recent weeks, politicians cutting across party lines have rediscovered the primacy of Parliament in democracy. They have shown great concern for following due process on parliamentary legislation and, as the prime minister stated, ensuring that all new laws are passed within the framework of the Constitution. This concern for the purity of parliamentary democracy is at odds with the state of Parliament itself. Shockingly, 76 MPs - including 13 Congress and 19 BJP MPs - in the current Lok Sabha (14% of its total strength) have serious criminal charges framed against them by a court of law. These are not politically motivated charges. They include, as per affidavits filed with the EC, &amp;quot;murder, rape, kidnapping, extortion, forgery, bribery, dacoity and causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons&amp;quot;. When 14% of our lawmakers are charged as lawbreakers, Parliament stands undermined. The presence of tainted elected Lok Sabha MPs poses a greater threat to Indian parliamentary democracy than any number of unelected citizen-activists.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Since there is no practical way to limit the use of black money in election funding, two specific electoral reforms are necessary to cleanse Parliament. First, the EC must have the power to deregister (it currently only has the power to derecognise) a political party which gives tickets in a Lok Sabha or assembly election to candidates with criminal chargesheets framed by a trial court, implying prima facie malfeasance. The law ministry has already begun drafting a Bill that proposes changes in the Representation of People&#039;s Act. The amendment would disallow candidates charged with criminal offences punishable with a jail sentence of more than five years from contesting any election. To weed out politically motivated charges, there will be a caveat: such charges should have been framed at least a year before the date of filing nominations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Second, the EC must impose strict tenure limitations (say, five years) on the post of party president of every registered political party, with all related family members included in the mandated five-year ceiling. This will mitigate the damaging feudalism that has made many of our parties function like family dynasties, allowing unprofessional hierarchies to flourish.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;During the forthcoming monsoon session, Parliament will discuss a slew of reformist legislation including the Lokpal Bill. But the Lokpal Bill is only one of several electoral and governance reforms that should be on Parliament&#039;s agenda. Making the CBI autonomous and implementing the 2006 Supreme Court directive on police reforms are both long overdue. The Judicial Standards and Accountability and Right to Justice Bills are equally vital for delivering swift, fair justice. The people&#039;s will is sovereign; Parliament is subordinate to that will. A Lok Sabha tainted by 76 criminally charged MPs undermines that will, diminishes parliamentary democracy and sullies the Constitution. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The writer is an author and chairman of a media group.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;
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                <strong>Who will watch the watchmen? by Minhaz Merchant</strong></h1>
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                <div align="justify">The audited balance sheets of the six largest political parties in India are hard to get and harder to decipher: they hide more than they reveal but are nonetheless worth close examination. Between them, the Congress, BJP, BSP, SP, NCP and CPM reported total income of Rs 1,046.76 crore for the year ending March 31, 2009. That was the year in which most of the funds for the 2009 Lok Sabha election were collected and deployed.<br /><br />The Congress reported total income of Rs 496.88 crore, expenditure of Rs 274.75 crore and net profit of Rs 222.13 crore in fiscal 2009. The BJP showed total income of Rs 220.02 crore. Between them, the Congress and the BJP have 322 MPs in the 15th Lok Sabha. What does it cost an MP to mount a successful election campaign for a Lok Sabha seat? Best estimates from independent sources - and from the Election Commission (EC) itself - put the figure at an average of Rs 10 crore per MP. Taking into account the two parties' winning and losing candidates, actual expenditure by the Congress and the BJP in the 2009 Lok Sabha election would have been far in excess of their combined audited income of Rs 716.90 crore. Clearly, the Congress and the BJP need to generate a significant amount in cash to fill the official funding gap in an election year as well as pay the administrative costs of running national political organisations.<br /><br />There are 28 state assembly and seven Union territory elections and at least one Lok Sabha poll during every five-year cycle - a minimum of 36 elections overall, or more than seven elections a year. The annual electoral funding gap is therefore large. Where does this money - all of it black - come from? Three sources: one, off-balance sheet cash donations by large and medium companies seeking quid pro quo favours from MPs when elected, leading to a corrupt political-business nexus. Two, wealthy individual donors, again in return for post-dated political favours. And three, scams.<br /><br />Scams are of several kinds: illegal commissions from public-private partnership infrastructure projects, mining leases and arbitrary land acquisitions; leakages from social sector schemes like MNREGA where party middlemen skim off the cream; irregular allocation of natural resources (including telecom spectrum); and inflated civic projects in large events such as the Commonwealth Games. This vast infrastructure of corruption can only be dismantled with targeted electoral reforms.<br /><br />In recent weeks, politicians cutting across party lines have rediscovered the primacy of Parliament in democracy. They have shown great concern for following due process on parliamentary legislation and, as the prime minister stated, ensuring that all new laws are passed within the framework of the Constitution. This concern for the purity of parliamentary democracy is at odds with the state of Parliament itself. Shockingly, 76 MPs - including 13 Congress and 19 BJP MPs - in the current Lok Sabha (14% of its total strength) have serious criminal charges framed against them by a court of law. These are not politically motivated charges. They include, as per affidavits filed with the EC, &quot;murder, rape, kidnapping, extortion, forgery, bribery, dacoity and causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons&quot;. When 14% of our lawmakers are charged as lawbreakers, Parliament stands undermined. The presence of tainted elected Lok Sabha MPs poses a greater threat to Indian parliamentary democracy than any number of unelected citizen-activists.<br /><br />Since there is no practical way to limit the use of black money in election funding, two specific electoral reforms are necessary to cleanse Parliament. First, the EC must have the power to deregister (it currently only has the power to derecognise) a political party which gives tickets in a Lok Sabha or assembly election to candidates with criminal chargesheets framed by a trial court, implying prima facie malfeasance. The law ministry has already begun drafting a Bill that proposes changes in the Representation of People's Act. The amendment would disallow candidates charged with criminal offences punishable with a jail sentence of more than five years from contesting any election. To weed out politically motivated charges, there will be a caveat: such charges should have been framed at least a year before the date of filing nominations.<br /><br />Second, the EC must impose strict tenure limitations (say, five years) on the post of party president of every registered political party, with all related family members included in the mandated five-year ceiling. This will mitigate the damaging feudalism that has made many of our parties function like family dynasties, allowing unprofessional hierarchies to flourish.<br /><br />During the forthcoming monsoon session, Parliament will discuss a slew of reformist legislation including the Lokpal Bill. But the Lokpal Bill is only one of several electoral and governance reforms that should be on Parliament's agenda. Making the CBI autonomous and implementing the 2006 Supreme Court directive on police reforms are both long overdue. The Judicial Standards and Accountability and Right to Justice Bills are equally vital for delivering swift, fair justice. The people's will is sovereign; Parliament is subordinate to that will. A Lok Sabha tainted by 76 criminally charged MPs undermines that will, diminishes parliamentary democracy and sullies the Constitution. </div><div align="justify">&nbsp;</div><div align="justify"><em>The writer is an author and chairman of a media group.&nbsp; </em><br /></div>               </font>
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The audited balance sheets of the six largest political parties in India are hard to get and harder to decipher: they hide more than they reveal but are nonetheless worth close examination. Between them, the Congress, BJP, BSP, SP, NCP and CPM reported total income of Rs 1,046.76 crore for the year ending March 31, 2009. That was the year in which most of the funds for the 2009 Lok Sabha election were collected and deployed.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The Congress reported total income of Rs 496.88 crore, expenditure of Rs 274.75 crore and net profit of Rs 222.13 crore in fiscal 2009. The BJP showed total income of Rs 220.02 crore. Between them, the Congress and the BJP have 322 MPs in the 15th Lok Sabha. What does it cost an MP to mount a successful election campaign for a Lok Sabha seat? Best estimates from independent sources - and from the Election Commission (EC) itself - put the figure at an average of Rs 10 crore per MP. Taking into account the two parties&#039; winning and losing candidates, actual expenditure by the Congress and the BJP in the 2009 Lok Sabha election would have been far in excess of their combined audited income of Rs 716.90 crore. Clearly, the Congress and the BJP need to generate a significant amount in cash to fill the official funding gap in an election year as well as pay the administrative costs of running national political organisations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 28 state assembly and seven Union territory elections and at least one Lok Sabha poll during every five-year cycle - a minimum of 36 elections overall, or more than seven elections a year. The annual electoral funding gap is therefore large. Where does this money - all of it black - come from? Three sources: one, off-balance sheet cash donations by large and medium companies seeking quid pro quo favours from MPs when elected, leading to a corrupt political-business nexus. Two, wealthy individual donors, again in return for post-dated political favours. And three, scams.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Scams are of several kinds: illegal commissions from public-private partnership infrastructure projects, mining leases and arbitrary land acquisitions; leakages from social sector schemes like MNREGA where party middlemen skim off the cream; irregular allocation of natural resources (including telecom spectrum); and inflated civic projects in large events such as the Commonwealth Games. This vast infrastructure of corruption can only be dismantled with targeted electoral reforms.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In recent weeks, politicians cutting across party lines have rediscovered the primacy of Parliament in democracy. They have shown great concern for following due process on parliamentary legislation and, as the prime minister stated, ensuring that all new laws are passed within the framework of the Constitution. This concern for the purity of parliamentary democracy is at odds with the state of Parliament itself. Shockingly, 76 MPs - including 13 Congress and 19 BJP MPs - in the current Lok Sabha (14% of its total strength) have serious criminal charges framed against them by a court of law. These are not politically motivated charges. They include, as per affidavits filed with the EC, &amp;quot;murder, rape, kidnapping, extortion, forgery, bribery, dacoity and causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons&amp;quot;. When 14% of our lawmakers are charged as lawbreakers, Parliament stands undermined. The presence of tainted elected Lok Sabha MPs poses a greater threat to Indian parliamentary democracy than any number of unelected citizen-activists.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Since there is no practical way to limit the use of black money in election funding, two specific electoral reforms are necessary to cleanse Parliament. First, the EC must have the power to deregister (it currently only has the power to derecognise) a political party which gives tickets in a Lok Sabha or assembly election to candidates with criminal chargesheets framed by a trial court, implying prima facie malfeasance. The law ministry has already begun drafting a Bill that proposes changes in the Representation of People&#039;s Act. The amendment would disallow candidates charged with criminal offences punishable with a jail sentence of more than five years from contesting any election. To weed out politically motivated charges, there will be a caveat: such charges should have been framed at least a year before the date of filing nominations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Second, the EC must impose strict tenure limitations (say, five years) on the post of party president of every registered political party, with all related family members included in the mandated five-year ceiling. This will mitigate the damaging feudalism that has made many of our parties function like family dynasties, allowing unprofessional hierarchies to flourish.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
During the forthcoming monsoon session, Parliament will discuss a slew of reformist legislation including the Lokpal Bill. But the Lokpal Bill is only one of several electoral and governance reforms that should be on Parliament&#039;s agenda. Making the CBI autonomous and implementing the 2006 Supreme Court directive on police reforms are both long overdue. The Judicial Standards and Accountability and Right to Justice Bills are equally vital for delivering swift, fair justice. The people&#039;s will is sovereign; Parliament is subordinate to that will. A Lok Sabha tainted by 76 criminally charged MPs undermines that will, diminishes parliamentary democracy and sullies the Constitution. 
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&amp;nbsp;
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&lt;em&gt;The writer is an author and chairman of a media group.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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The audited balance sheets of the six largest political parties in India are hard to get and harder to decipher: they hide more than they reveal but are nonetheless worth close examination. Between them, the Congress, BJP, BSP, SP, NCP...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The audited balance sheets of the six largest political parties in India are hard to get and harder to decipher: they hide more than they reveal but are nonetheless worth close examination. Between them, the Congress, BJP, BSP, SP, NCP and CPM reported total income of Rs 1,046.76 crore for the year ending March 31, 2009. That was the year in which most of the funds for the 2009 Lok Sabha election were collected and deployed.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Congress reported total income of Rs 496.88 crore, expenditure of Rs 274.75 crore and net profit of Rs 222.13 crore in fiscal 2009. The BJP showed total income of Rs 220.02 crore. Between them, the Congress and the BJP have 322 MPs in the 15th Lok Sabha. What does it cost an MP to mount a successful election campaign for a Lok Sabha seat? Best estimates from independent sources - and from the Election Commission (EC) itself - put the figure at an average of Rs 10 crore per MP. Taking into account the two parties&#039; winning and losing candidates, actual expenditure by the Congress and the BJP in the 2009 Lok Sabha election would have been far in excess of their combined audited income of Rs 716.90 crore. Clearly, the Congress and the BJP need to generate a significant amount in cash to fill the official funding gap in an election year as well as pay the administrative costs of running national political organisations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 28 state assembly and seven Union territory elections and at least one Lok Sabha poll during every five-year cycle - a minimum of 36 elections overall, or more than seven elections a year. The annual electoral funding gap is therefore large. Where does this money - all of it black - come from? Three sources: one, off-balance sheet cash donations by large and medium companies seeking quid pro quo favours from MPs when elected, leading to a corrupt political-business nexus. Two, wealthy individual donors, again in return for post-dated political favours. And three, scams.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Scams are of several kinds: illegal commissions from public-private partnership infrastructure projects, mining leases and arbitrary land acquisitions; leakages from social sector schemes like MNREGA where party middlemen skim off the cream; irregular allocation of natural resources (including telecom spectrum); and inflated civic projects in large events such as the Commonwealth Games. This vast infrastructure of corruption can only be dismantled with targeted electoral reforms.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In recent weeks, politicians cutting across party lines have rediscovered the primacy of Parliament in democracy. They have shown great concern for following due process on parliamentary legislation and, as the prime minister stated, ensuring that all new laws are passed within the framework of the Constitution. This concern for the purity of parliamentary democracy is at odds with the state of Parliament itself. Shockingly, 76 MPs - including 13 Congress and 19 BJP MPs - in the current Lok Sabha (14% of its total strength) have serious criminal charges framed against them by a court of law. These are not politically motivated charges. They include, as per affidavits filed with the EC, &amp;quot;murder, rape, kidnapping, extortion, forgery, bribery, dacoity and causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons&amp;quot;. When 14% of our lawmakers are charged as lawbreakers, Parliament stands undermined. The presence of tainted elected Lok Sabha MPs poses a greater threat to Indian parliamentary democracy than any number of unelected citizen-activists.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Since there is no practical way to limit the use of black money in election funding, two specific electoral reforms are necessary to cleanse Parliament. First, the EC must have the power to deregister (it currently only has the power to derecognise) a political party which gives tickets in a Lok Sabha or assembly election to candidates with criminal chargesheets framed by a trial court, implying prima facie malfeasance. The law ministry has already begun drafting a Bill that proposes changes in the Representation of People&#039;s Act. The amendment would disallow candidates charged with criminal offences punishable with a jail sentence of more than five years from contesting any election. To weed out politically motivated charges, there will be a caveat: such charges should have been framed at least a year before the date of filing nominations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Second, the EC must impose strict tenure limitations (say, five years) on the post of party president of every registered political party, with all related family members included in the mandated five-year ceiling. This will mitigate the damaging feudalism that has made many of our parties function like family dynasties, allowing unprofessional hierarchies to flourish.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;During the forthcoming monsoon session, Parliament will discuss a slew of reformist legislation including the Lokpal Bill. But the Lokpal Bill is only one of several electoral and governance reforms that should be on Parliament&#039;s agenda. Making the CBI autonomous and implementing the 2006 Supreme Court directive on police reforms are both long overdue. The Judicial Standards and Accountability and Right to Justice Bills are equally vital for delivering swift, fair justice. The people&#039;s will is sovereign; Parliament is subordinate to that will. A Lok Sabha tainted by 76 criminally charged MPs undermines that will, diminishes parliamentary democracy and sullies the Constitution. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The writer is an author and chairman of a media group.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
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	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Who will watch the watchmen? by Minhaz Merchant&#039;,
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The audited balance sheets of the six largest political parties in India are hard to get and harder to decipher: they hide more than they reveal but are nonetheless worth close examination. Between them, the Congress, BJP, BSP, SP, NCP and CPM reported total income of Rs 1,046.76 crore for the year ending March 31, 2009. That was the year in which most of the funds for the 2009 Lok Sabha election were collected and deployed.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The Congress reported total income of Rs 496.88 crore, expenditure of Rs 274.75 crore and net profit of Rs 222.13 crore in fiscal 2009. The BJP showed total income of Rs 220.02 crore. Between them, the Congress and the BJP have 322 MPs in the 15th Lok Sabha. What does it cost an MP to mount a successful election campaign for a Lok Sabha seat? Best estimates from independent sources - and from the Election Commission (EC) itself - put the figure at an average of Rs 10 crore per MP. Taking into account the two parties&#039; winning and losing candidates, actual expenditure by the Congress and the BJP in the 2009 Lok Sabha election would have been far in excess of their combined audited income of Rs 716.90 crore. Clearly, the Congress and the BJP need to generate a significant amount in cash to fill the official funding gap in an election year as well as pay the administrative costs of running national political organisations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 28 state assembly and seven Union territory elections and at least one Lok Sabha poll during every five-year cycle - a minimum of 36 elections overall, or more than seven elections a year. The annual electoral funding gap is therefore large. Where does this money - all of it black - come from? Three sources: one, off-balance sheet cash donations by large and medium companies seeking quid pro quo favours from MPs when elected, leading to a corrupt political-business nexus. Two, wealthy individual donors, again in return for post-dated political favours. And three, scams.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Scams are of several kinds: illegal commissions from public-private partnership infrastructure projects, mining leases and arbitrary land acquisitions; leakages from social sector schemes like MNREGA where party middlemen skim off the cream; irregular allocation of natural resources (including telecom spectrum); and inflated civic projects in large events such as the Commonwealth Games. This vast infrastructure of corruption can only be dismantled with targeted electoral reforms.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In recent weeks, politicians cutting across party lines have rediscovered the primacy of Parliament in democracy. They have shown great concern for following due process on parliamentary legislation and, as the prime minister stated, ensuring that all new laws are passed within the framework of the Constitution. This concern for the purity of parliamentary democracy is at odds with the state of Parliament itself. Shockingly, 76 MPs - including 13 Congress and 19 BJP MPs - in the current Lok Sabha (14% of its total strength) have serious criminal charges framed against them by a court of law. These are not politically motivated charges. They include, as per affidavits filed with the EC, &amp;quot;murder, rape, kidnapping, extortion, forgery, bribery, dacoity and causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons&amp;quot;. When 14% of our lawmakers are charged as lawbreakers, Parliament stands undermined. The presence of tainted elected Lok Sabha MPs poses a greater threat to Indian parliamentary democracy than any number of unelected citizen-activists.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Since there is no practical way to limit the use of black money in election funding, two specific electoral reforms are necessary to cleanse Parliament. First, the EC must have the power to deregister (it currently only has the power to derecognise) a political party which gives tickets in a Lok Sabha or assembly election to candidates with criminal chargesheets framed by a trial court, implying prima facie malfeasance. The law ministry has already begun drafting a Bill that proposes changes in the Representation of People&#039;s Act. The amendment would disallow candidates charged with criminal offences punishable with a jail sentence of more than five years from contesting any election. To weed out politically motivated charges, there will be a caveat: such charges should have been framed at least a year before the date of filing nominations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Second, the EC must impose strict tenure limitations (say, five years) on the post of party president of every registered political party, with all related family members included in the mandated five-year ceiling. This will mitigate the damaging feudalism that has made many of our parties function like family dynasties, allowing unprofessional hierarchies to flourish.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
During the forthcoming monsoon session, Parliament will discuss a slew of reformist legislation including the Lokpal Bill. But the Lokpal Bill is only one of several electoral and governance reforms that should be on Parliament&#039;s agenda. Making the CBI autonomous and implementing the 2006 Supreme Court directive on police reforms are both long overdue. The Judicial Standards and Accountability and Right to Justice Bills are equally vital for delivering swift, fair justice. The people&#039;s will is sovereign; Parliament is subordinate to that will. A Lok Sabha tainted by 76 criminally charged MPs undermines that will, diminishes parliamentary democracy and sullies the Constitution. 
&lt;/div&gt;
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&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;The writer is an author and chairman of a media group.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
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The audited balance sheets of the six largest political parties in India are hard to get and harder to decipher: they hide more than they reveal but are nonetheless worth close examination. Between them, the Congress, BJP, BSP, SP, NCP...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The audited balance sheets of the six largest political parties in India are hard to get and harder to decipher: they hide more than they reveal but are nonetheless worth close examination. Between them, the Congress, BJP, BSP, SP, NCP and CPM reported total income of Rs 1,046.76 crore for the year ending March 31, 2009. That was the year in which most of the funds for the 2009 Lok Sabha election were collected and deployed.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Congress reported total income of Rs 496.88 crore, expenditure of Rs 274.75 crore and net profit of Rs 222.13 crore in fiscal 2009. The BJP showed total income of Rs 220.02 crore. Between them, the Congress and the BJP have 322 MPs in the 15th Lok Sabha. What does it cost an MP to mount a successful election campaign for a Lok Sabha seat? Best estimates from independent sources - and from the Election Commission (EC) itself - put the figure at an average of Rs 10 crore per MP. Taking into account the two parties&#039; winning and losing candidates, actual expenditure by the Congress and the BJP in the 2009 Lok Sabha election would have been far in excess of their combined audited income of Rs 716.90 crore. Clearly, the Congress and the BJP need to generate a significant amount in cash to fill the official funding gap in an election year as well as pay the administrative costs of running national political organisations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 28 state assembly and seven Union territory elections and at least one Lok Sabha poll during every five-year cycle - a minimum of 36 elections overall, or more than seven elections a year. The annual electoral funding gap is therefore large. Where does this money - all of it black - come from? Three sources: one, off-balance sheet cash donations by large and medium companies seeking quid pro quo favours from MPs when elected, leading to a corrupt political-business nexus. Two, wealthy individual donors, again in return for post-dated political favours. And three, scams.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Scams are of several kinds: illegal commissions from public-private partnership infrastructure projects, mining leases and arbitrary land acquisitions; leakages from social sector schemes like MNREGA where party middlemen skim off the cream; irregular allocation of natural resources (including telecom spectrum); and inflated civic projects in large events such as the Commonwealth Games. This vast infrastructure of corruption can only be dismantled with targeted electoral reforms.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In recent weeks, politicians cutting across party lines have rediscovered the primacy of Parliament in democracy. They have shown great concern for following due process on parliamentary legislation and, as the prime minister stated, ensuring that all new laws are passed within the framework of the Constitution. This concern for the purity of parliamentary democracy is at odds with the state of Parliament itself. Shockingly, 76 MPs - including 13 Congress and 19 BJP MPs - in the current Lok Sabha (14% of its total strength) have serious criminal charges framed against them by a court of law. These are not politically motivated charges. They include, as per affidavits filed with the EC, &amp;quot;murder, rape, kidnapping, extortion, forgery, bribery, dacoity and causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons&amp;quot;. When 14% of our lawmakers are charged as lawbreakers, Parliament stands undermined. The presence of tainted elected Lok Sabha MPs poses a greater threat to Indian parliamentary democracy than any number of unelected citizen-activists.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Since there is no practical way to limit the use of black money in election funding, two specific electoral reforms are necessary to cleanse Parliament. First, the EC must have the power to deregister (it currently only has the power to derecognise) a political party which gives tickets in a Lok Sabha or assembly election to candidates with criminal chargesheets framed by a trial court, implying prima facie malfeasance. The law ministry has already begun drafting a Bill that proposes changes in the Representation of People&#039;s Act. The amendment would disallow candidates charged with criminal offences punishable with a jail sentence of more than five years from contesting any election. To weed out politically motivated charges, there will be a caveat: such charges should have been framed at least a year before the date of filing nominations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Second, the EC must impose strict tenure limitations (say, five years) on the post of party president of every registered political party, with all related family members included in the mandated five-year ceiling. This will mitigate the damaging feudalism that has made many of our parties function like family dynasties, allowing unprofessional hierarchies to flourish.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;During the forthcoming monsoon session, Parliament will discuss a slew of reformist legislation including the Lokpal Bill. But the Lokpal Bill is only one of several electoral and governance reforms that should be on Parliament&#039;s agenda. Making the CBI autonomous and implementing the 2006 Supreme Court directive on police reforms are both long overdue. The Judicial Standards and Accountability and Right to Justice Bills are equally vital for delivering swift, fair justice. The people&#039;s will is sovereign; Parliament is subordinate to that will. 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The audited balance sheets of the six largest political parties in India are hard to get and harder to decipher: they hide more than they reveal but are nonetheless worth close examination. Between them, the Congress, BJP, BSP, SP, NCP..."/>
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                <strong>Who will watch the watchmen? by Minhaz Merchant</strong></h1>
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                <div align="justify">The audited balance sheets of the six largest political parties in India are hard to get and harder to decipher: they hide more than they reveal but are nonetheless worth close examination. Between them, the Congress, BJP, BSP, SP, NCP and CPM reported total income of Rs 1,046.76 crore for the year ending March 31, 2009. That was the year in which most of the funds for the 2009 Lok Sabha election were collected and deployed.<br /><br />The Congress reported total income of Rs 496.88 crore, expenditure of Rs 274.75 crore and net profit of Rs 222.13 crore in fiscal 2009. The BJP showed total income of Rs 220.02 crore. Between them, the Congress and the BJP have 322 MPs in the 15th Lok Sabha. What does it cost an MP to mount a successful election campaign for a Lok Sabha seat? Best estimates from independent sources - and from the Election Commission (EC) itself - put the figure at an average of Rs 10 crore per MP. Taking into account the two parties' winning and losing candidates, actual expenditure by the Congress and the BJP in the 2009 Lok Sabha election would have been far in excess of their combined audited income of Rs 716.90 crore. Clearly, the Congress and the BJP need to generate a significant amount in cash to fill the official funding gap in an election year as well as pay the administrative costs of running national political organisations.<br /><br />There are 28 state assembly and seven Union territory elections and at least one Lok Sabha poll during every five-year cycle - a minimum of 36 elections overall, or more than seven elections a year. The annual electoral funding gap is therefore large. Where does this money - all of it black - come from? Three sources: one, off-balance sheet cash donations by large and medium companies seeking quid pro quo favours from MPs when elected, leading to a corrupt political-business nexus. Two, wealthy individual donors, again in return for post-dated political favours. And three, scams.<br /><br />Scams are of several kinds: illegal commissions from public-private partnership infrastructure projects, mining leases and arbitrary land acquisitions; leakages from social sector schemes like MNREGA where party middlemen skim off the cream; irregular allocation of natural resources (including telecom spectrum); and inflated civic projects in large events such as the Commonwealth Games. This vast infrastructure of corruption can only be dismantled with targeted electoral reforms.<br /><br />In recent weeks, politicians cutting across party lines have rediscovered the primacy of Parliament in democracy. They have shown great concern for following due process on parliamentary legislation and, as the prime minister stated, ensuring that all new laws are passed within the framework of the Constitution. This concern for the purity of parliamentary democracy is at odds with the state of Parliament itself. Shockingly, 76 MPs - including 13 Congress and 19 BJP MPs - in the current Lok Sabha (14% of its total strength) have serious criminal charges framed against them by a court of law. These are not politically motivated charges. They include, as per affidavits filed with the EC, &quot;murder, rape, kidnapping, extortion, forgery, bribery, dacoity and causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons&quot;. When 14% of our lawmakers are charged as lawbreakers, Parliament stands undermined. The presence of tainted elected Lok Sabha MPs poses a greater threat to Indian parliamentary democracy than any number of unelected citizen-activists.<br /><br />Since there is no practical way to limit the use of black money in election funding, two specific electoral reforms are necessary to cleanse Parliament. First, the EC must have the power to deregister (it currently only has the power to derecognise) a political party which gives tickets in a Lok Sabha or assembly election to candidates with criminal chargesheets framed by a trial court, implying prima facie malfeasance. The law ministry has already begun drafting a Bill that proposes changes in the Representation of People's Act. The amendment would disallow candidates charged with criminal offences punishable with a jail sentence of more than five years from contesting any election. To weed out politically motivated charges, there will be a caveat: such charges should have been framed at least a year before the date of filing nominations.<br /><br />Second, the EC must impose strict tenure limitations (say, five years) on the post of party president of every registered political party, with all related family members included in the mandated five-year ceiling. This will mitigate the damaging feudalism that has made many of our parties function like family dynasties, allowing unprofessional hierarchies to flourish.<br /><br />During the forthcoming monsoon session, Parliament will discuss a slew of reformist legislation including the Lokpal Bill. But the Lokpal Bill is only one of several electoral and governance reforms that should be on Parliament's agenda. Making the CBI autonomous and implementing the 2006 Supreme Court directive on police reforms are both long overdue. The Judicial Standards and Accountability and Right to Justice Bills are equally vital for delivering swift, fair justice. The people's will is sovereign; Parliament is subordinate to that will. A Lok Sabha tainted by 76 criminally charged MPs undermines that will, diminishes parliamentary democracy and sullies the Constitution. </div><div align="justify">&nbsp;</div><div align="justify"><em>The writer is an author and chairman of a media group.&nbsp; </em><br /></div>               </font>
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    <link rel="canonical" href="https://im4change.in/<pre class="cake-error"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67fd77cb14cc7-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67fd77cb14cc7-trace').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none');"><b>Notice</b> (8)</a>: Undefined variable: urlPrefix [<b>APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp</b>, line <b>8</b>]<div id="cakeErr67fd77cb14cc7-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67fd77cb14cc7-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67fd77cb14cc7-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67fd77cb14cc7-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67fd77cb14cc7-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr67fd77cb14cc7-code" class="cake-code-dump" style="display: none;"><code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB"></span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">head</span><span style="color: #007700">&gt;
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The audited balance sheets of the six largest political parties in India are hard to get and harder to decipher: they hide more than they reveal but are nonetheless worth close examination. Between them, the Congress, BJP, BSP, SP, NCP and CPM reported total income of Rs 1,046.76 crore for the year ending March 31, 2009. That was the year in which most of the funds for the 2009 Lok Sabha election were collected and deployed.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The Congress reported total income of Rs 496.88 crore, expenditure of Rs 274.75 crore and net profit of Rs 222.13 crore in fiscal 2009. The BJP showed total income of Rs 220.02 crore. Between them, the Congress and the BJP have 322 MPs in the 15th Lok Sabha. What does it cost an MP to mount a successful election campaign for a Lok Sabha seat? Best estimates from independent sources - and from the Election Commission (EC) itself - put the figure at an average of Rs 10 crore per MP. Taking into account the two parties&#039; winning and losing candidates, actual expenditure by the Congress and the BJP in the 2009 Lok Sabha election would have been far in excess of their combined audited income of Rs 716.90 crore. Clearly, the Congress and the BJP need to generate a significant amount in cash to fill the official funding gap in an election year as well as pay the administrative costs of running national political organisations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 28 state assembly and seven Union territory elections and at least one Lok Sabha poll during every five-year cycle - a minimum of 36 elections overall, or more than seven elections a year. The annual electoral funding gap is therefore large. Where does this money - all of it black - come from? Three sources: one, off-balance sheet cash donations by large and medium companies seeking quid pro quo favours from MPs when elected, leading to a corrupt political-business nexus. Two, wealthy individual donors, again in return for post-dated political favours. And three, scams.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Scams are of several kinds: illegal commissions from public-private partnership infrastructure projects, mining leases and arbitrary land acquisitions; leakages from social sector schemes like MNREGA where party middlemen skim off the cream; irregular allocation of natural resources (including telecom spectrum); and inflated civic projects in large events such as the Commonwealth Games. This vast infrastructure of corruption can only be dismantled with targeted electoral reforms.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In recent weeks, politicians cutting across party lines have rediscovered the primacy of Parliament in democracy. They have shown great concern for following due process on parliamentary legislation and, as the prime minister stated, ensuring that all new laws are passed within the framework of the Constitution. This concern for the purity of parliamentary democracy is at odds with the state of Parliament itself. Shockingly, 76 MPs - including 13 Congress and 19 BJP MPs - in the current Lok Sabha (14% of its total strength) have serious criminal charges framed against them by a court of law. These are not politically motivated charges. They include, as per affidavits filed with the EC, &amp;quot;murder, rape, kidnapping, extortion, forgery, bribery, dacoity and causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons&amp;quot;. When 14% of our lawmakers are charged as lawbreakers, Parliament stands undermined. The presence of tainted elected Lok Sabha MPs poses a greater threat to Indian parliamentary democracy than any number of unelected citizen-activists.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Since there is no practical way to limit the use of black money in election funding, two specific electoral reforms are necessary to cleanse Parliament. First, the EC must have the power to deregister (it currently only has the power to derecognise) a political party which gives tickets in a Lok Sabha or assembly election to candidates with criminal chargesheets framed by a trial court, implying prima facie malfeasance. The law ministry has already begun drafting a Bill that proposes changes in the Representation of People&#039;s Act. The amendment would disallow candidates charged with criminal offences punishable with a jail sentence of more than five years from contesting any election. To weed out politically motivated charges, there will be a caveat: such charges should have been framed at least a year before the date of filing nominations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Second, the EC must impose strict tenure limitations (say, five years) on the post of party president of every registered political party, with all related family members included in the mandated five-year ceiling. This will mitigate the damaging feudalism that has made many of our parties function like family dynasties, allowing unprofessional hierarchies to flourish.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
During the forthcoming monsoon session, Parliament will discuss a slew of reformist legislation including the Lokpal Bill. But the Lokpal Bill is only one of several electoral and governance reforms that should be on Parliament&#039;s agenda. Making the CBI autonomous and implementing the 2006 Supreme Court directive on police reforms are both long overdue. The Judicial Standards and Accountability and Right to Justice Bills are equally vital for delivering swift, fair justice. The people&#039;s will is sovereign; Parliament is subordinate to that will. A Lok Sabha tainted by 76 criminally charged MPs undermines that will, diminishes parliamentary democracy and sullies the Constitution. 
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&lt;em&gt;The writer is an author and chairman of a media group.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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The audited balance sheets of the six largest political parties in India are hard to get and harder to decipher: they hide more than they reveal but are nonetheless worth close examination. Between them, the Congress, BJP, BSP, SP, NCP...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The audited balance sheets of the six largest political parties in India are hard to get and harder to decipher: they hide more than they reveal but are nonetheless worth close examination. Between them, the Congress, BJP, BSP, SP, NCP and CPM reported total income of Rs 1,046.76 crore for the year ending March 31, 2009. That was the year in which most of the funds for the 2009 Lok Sabha election were collected and deployed.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Congress reported total income of Rs 496.88 crore, expenditure of Rs 274.75 crore and net profit of Rs 222.13 crore in fiscal 2009. The BJP showed total income of Rs 220.02 crore. Between them, the Congress and the BJP have 322 MPs in the 15th Lok Sabha. What does it cost an MP to mount a successful election campaign for a Lok Sabha seat? Best estimates from independent sources - and from the Election Commission (EC) itself - put the figure at an average of Rs 10 crore per MP. Taking into account the two parties&#039; winning and losing candidates, actual expenditure by the Congress and the BJP in the 2009 Lok Sabha election would have been far in excess of their combined audited income of Rs 716.90 crore. Clearly, the Congress and the BJP need to generate a significant amount in cash to fill the official funding gap in an election year as well as pay the administrative costs of running national political organisations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 28 state assembly and seven Union territory elections and at least one Lok Sabha poll during every five-year cycle - a minimum of 36 elections overall, or more than seven elections a year. The annual electoral funding gap is therefore large. Where does this money - all of it black - come from? Three sources: one, off-balance sheet cash donations by large and medium companies seeking quid pro quo favours from MPs when elected, leading to a corrupt political-business nexus. Two, wealthy individual donors, again in return for post-dated political favours. And three, scams.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Scams are of several kinds: illegal commissions from public-private partnership infrastructure projects, mining leases and arbitrary land acquisitions; leakages from social sector schemes like MNREGA where party middlemen skim off the cream; irregular allocation of natural resources (including telecom spectrum); and inflated civic projects in large events such as the Commonwealth Games. This vast infrastructure of corruption can only be dismantled with targeted electoral reforms.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In recent weeks, politicians cutting across party lines have rediscovered the primacy of Parliament in democracy. They have shown great concern for following due process on parliamentary legislation and, as the prime minister stated, ensuring that all new laws are passed within the framework of the Constitution. This concern for the purity of parliamentary democracy is at odds with the state of Parliament itself. Shockingly, 76 MPs - including 13 Congress and 19 BJP MPs - in the current Lok Sabha (14% of its total strength) have serious criminal charges framed against them by a court of law. These are not politically motivated charges. They include, as per affidavits filed with the EC, &amp;quot;murder, rape, kidnapping, extortion, forgery, bribery, dacoity and causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons&amp;quot;. When 14% of our lawmakers are charged as lawbreakers, Parliament stands undermined. The presence of tainted elected Lok Sabha MPs poses a greater threat to Indian parliamentary democracy than any number of unelected citizen-activists.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Since there is no practical way to limit the use of black money in election funding, two specific electoral reforms are necessary to cleanse Parliament. First, the EC must have the power to deregister (it currently only has the power to derecognise) a political party which gives tickets in a Lok Sabha or assembly election to candidates with criminal chargesheets framed by a trial court, implying prima facie malfeasance. The law ministry has already begun drafting a Bill that proposes changes in the Representation of People&#039;s Act. The amendment would disallow candidates charged with criminal offences punishable with a jail sentence of more than five years from contesting any election. To weed out politically motivated charges, there will be a caveat: such charges should have been framed at least a year before the date of filing nominations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Second, the EC must impose strict tenure limitations (say, five years) on the post of party president of every registered political party, with all related family members included in the mandated five-year ceiling. This will mitigate the damaging feudalism that has made many of our parties function like family dynasties, allowing unprofessional hierarchies to flourish.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;During the forthcoming monsoon session, Parliament will discuss a slew of reformist legislation including the Lokpal Bill. But the Lokpal Bill is only one of several electoral and governance reforms that should be on Parliament&#039;s agenda. Making the CBI autonomous and implementing the 2006 Supreme Court directive on police reforms are both long overdue. The Judicial Standards and Accountability and Right to Justice Bills are equally vital for delivering swift, fair justice. The people&#039;s will is sovereign; Parliament is subordinate to that will. A Lok Sabha tainted by 76 criminally charged MPs undermines that will, diminishes parliamentary democracy and sullies the Constitution. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The writer is an author and chairman of a media group.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
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The audited balance sheets of the six largest political parties in India are hard to get and harder to decipher: they hide more than they reveal but are nonetheless worth close examination. Between them, the Congress, BJP, BSP, SP, NCP and CPM reported total income of Rs 1,046.76 crore for the year ending March 31, 2009. That was the year in which most of the funds for the 2009 Lok Sabha election were collected and deployed.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The Congress reported total income of Rs 496.88 crore, expenditure of Rs 274.75 crore and net profit of Rs 222.13 crore in fiscal 2009. The BJP showed total income of Rs 220.02 crore. Between them, the Congress and the BJP have 322 MPs in the 15th Lok Sabha. What does it cost an MP to mount a successful election campaign for a Lok Sabha seat? Best estimates from independent sources - and from the Election Commission (EC) itself - put the figure at an average of Rs 10 crore per MP. Taking into account the two parties&#039; winning and losing candidates, actual expenditure by the Congress and the BJP in the 2009 Lok Sabha election would have been far in excess of their combined audited income of Rs 716.90 crore. Clearly, the Congress and the BJP need to generate a significant amount in cash to fill the official funding gap in an election year as well as pay the administrative costs of running national political organisations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are 28 state assembly and seven Union territory elections and at least one Lok Sabha poll during every five-year cycle - a minimum of 36 elections overall, or more than seven elections a year. The annual electoral funding gap is therefore large. Where does this money - all of it black - come from? Three sources: one, off-balance sheet cash donations by large and medium companies seeking quid pro quo favours from MPs when elected, leading to a corrupt political-business nexus. Two, wealthy individual donors, again in return for post-dated political favours. And three, scams.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Scams are of several kinds: illegal commissions from public-private partnership infrastructure projects, mining leases and arbitrary land acquisitions; leakages from social sector schemes like MNREGA where party middlemen skim off the cream; irregular allocation of natural resources (including telecom spectrum); and inflated civic projects in large events such as the Commonwealth Games. This vast infrastructure of corruption can only be dismantled with targeted electoral reforms.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In recent weeks, politicians cutting across party lines have rediscovered the primacy of Parliament in democracy. They have shown great concern for following due process on parliamentary legislation and, as the prime minister stated, ensuring that all new laws are passed within the framework of the Constitution. This concern for the purity of parliamentary democracy is at odds with the state of Parliament itself. Shockingly, 76 MPs - including 13 Congress and 19 BJP MPs - in the current Lok Sabha (14% of its total strength) have serious criminal charges framed against them by a court of law. These are not politically motivated charges. They include, as per affidavits filed with the EC, &amp;quot;murder, rape, kidnapping, extortion, forgery, bribery, dacoity and causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons&amp;quot;. When 14% of our lawmakers are charged as lawbreakers, Parliament stands undermined. The presence of tainted elected Lok Sabha MPs poses a greater threat to Indian parliamentary democracy than any number of unelected citizen-activists.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Since there is no practical way to limit the use of black money in election funding, two specific electoral reforms are necessary to cleanse Parliament. First, the EC must have the power to deregister (it currently only has the power to derecognise) a political party which gives tickets in a Lok Sabha or assembly election to candidates with criminal chargesheets framed by a trial court, implying prima facie malfeasance. The law ministry has already begun drafting a Bill that proposes changes in the Representation of People&#039;s Act. The amendment would disallow candidates charged with criminal offences punishable with a jail sentence of more than five years from contesting any election. To weed out politically motivated charges, there will be a caveat: such charges should have been framed at least a year before the date of filing nominations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Second, the EC must impose strict tenure limitations (say, five years) on the post of party president of every registered political party, with all related family members included in the mandated five-year ceiling. This will mitigate the damaging feudalism that has made many of our parties function like family dynasties, allowing unprofessional hierarchies to flourish.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
During the forthcoming monsoon session, Parliament will discuss a slew of reformist legislation including the Lokpal Bill. But the Lokpal Bill is only one of several electoral and governance reforms that should be on Parliament&#039;s agenda. Making the CBI autonomous and implementing the 2006 Supreme Court directive on police reforms are both long overdue. The Judicial Standards and Accountability and Right to Justice Bills are equally vital for delivering swift, fair justice. The people&#039;s will is sovereign; Parliament is subordinate to that will. A Lok Sabha tainted by 76 criminally charged MPs undermines that will, diminishes parliamentary democracy and sullies the Constitution. 
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;The writer is an author and chairman of a media group.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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The audited balance sheets of the six largest political parties in India are hard to get and harder to decipher: they hide more than they reveal but are nonetheless worth close examination. Between them, the Congress, BJP, BSP, SP, NCP...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The audited balance sheets of the six largest political parties in India are hard to get and harder to decipher: they hide more than they reveal but are nonetheless worth close examination. Between them, the Congress, BJP, BSP, SP, NCP and CPM reported total income of Rs 1,046.76 crore for the year ending March 31, 2009. That was the year in which most of the funds for the 2009 Lok Sabha election were collected and deployed.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Congress reported total income of Rs 496.88 crore, expenditure of Rs 274.75 crore and net profit of Rs 222.13 crore in fiscal 2009. The BJP showed total income of Rs 220.02 crore. Between them, the Congress and the BJP have 322 MPs in the 15th Lok Sabha. What does it cost an MP to mount a successful election campaign for a Lok Sabha seat? Best estimates from independent sources - and from the Election Commission (EC) itself - put the figure at an average of Rs 10 crore per MP. Taking into account the two parties&#039; winning and losing candidates, actual expenditure by the Congress and the BJP in the 2009 Lok Sabha election would have been far in excess of their combined audited income of Rs 716.90 crore. Clearly, the Congress and the BJP need to generate a significant amount in cash to fill the official funding gap in an election year as well as pay the administrative costs of running national political organisations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are 28 state assembly and seven Union territory elections and at least one Lok Sabha poll during every five-year cycle - a minimum of 36 elections overall, or more than seven elections a year. The annual electoral funding gap is therefore large. Where does this money - all of it black - come from? Three sources: one, off-balance sheet cash donations by large and medium companies seeking quid pro quo favours from MPs when elected, leading to a corrupt political-business nexus. Two, wealthy individual donors, again in return for post-dated political favours. And three, scams.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Scams are of several kinds: illegal commissions from public-private partnership infrastructure projects, mining leases and arbitrary land acquisitions; leakages from social sector schemes like MNREGA where party middlemen skim off the cream; irregular allocation of natural resources (including telecom spectrum); and inflated civic projects in large events such as the Commonwealth Games. This vast infrastructure of corruption can only be dismantled with targeted electoral reforms.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In recent weeks, politicians cutting across party lines have rediscovered the primacy of Parliament in democracy. They have shown great concern for following due process on parliamentary legislation and, as the prime minister stated, ensuring that all new laws are passed within the framework of the Constitution. This concern for the purity of parliamentary democracy is at odds with the state of Parliament itself. Shockingly, 76 MPs - including 13 Congress and 19 BJP MPs - in the current Lok Sabha (14% of its total strength) have serious criminal charges framed against them by a court of law. These are not politically motivated charges. They include, as per affidavits filed with the EC, &amp;quot;murder, rape, kidnapping, extortion, forgery, bribery, dacoity and causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons&amp;quot;. When 14% of our lawmakers are charged as lawbreakers, Parliament stands undermined. The presence of tainted elected Lok Sabha MPs poses a greater threat to Indian parliamentary democracy than any number of unelected citizen-activists.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Since there is no practical way to limit the use of black money in election funding, two specific electoral reforms are necessary to cleanse Parliament. First, the EC must have the power to deregister (it currently only has the power to derecognise) a political party which gives tickets in a Lok Sabha or assembly election to candidates with criminal chargesheets framed by a trial court, implying prima facie malfeasance. The law ministry has already begun drafting a Bill that proposes changes in the Representation of People&#039;s Act. The amendment would disallow candidates charged with criminal offences punishable with a jail sentence of more than five years from contesting any election. To weed out politically motivated charges, there will be a caveat: such charges should have been framed at least a year before the date of filing nominations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Second, the EC must impose strict tenure limitations (say, five years) on the post of party president of every registered political party, with all related family members included in the mandated five-year ceiling. This will mitigate the damaging feudalism that has made many of our parties function like family dynasties, allowing unprofessional hierarchies to flourish.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;During the forthcoming monsoon session, Parliament will discuss a slew of reformist legislation including the Lokpal Bill. But the Lokpal Bill is only one of several electoral and governance reforms that should be on Parliament&#039;s agenda. Making the CBI autonomous and implementing the 2006 Supreme Court directive on police reforms are both long overdue. The Judicial Standards and Accountability and Right to Justice Bills are equally vital for delivering swift, fair justice. The people&#039;s will is sovereign; Parliament is subordinate to that will. A Lok Sabha tainted by 76 criminally charged MPs undermines that will, diminishes parliamentary democracy and sullies the Constitution. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The writer is an author and chairman of a media group.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;
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                <strong>Who will watch the watchmen? by Minhaz Merchant</strong></h1>
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                <div align="justify">The audited balance sheets of the six largest political parties in India are hard to get and harder to decipher: they hide more than they reveal but are nonetheless worth close examination. Between them, the Congress, BJP, BSP, SP, NCP and CPM reported total income of Rs 1,046.76 crore for the year ending March 31, 2009. That was the year in which most of the funds for the 2009 Lok Sabha election were collected and deployed.<br /><br />The Congress reported total income of Rs 496.88 crore, expenditure of Rs 274.75 crore and net profit of Rs 222.13 crore in fiscal 2009. The BJP showed total income of Rs 220.02 crore. Between them, the Congress and the BJP have 322 MPs in the 15th Lok Sabha. What does it cost an MP to mount a successful election campaign for a Lok Sabha seat? Best estimates from independent sources - and from the Election Commission (EC) itself - put the figure at an average of Rs 10 crore per MP. Taking into account the two parties' winning and losing candidates, actual expenditure by the Congress and the BJP in the 2009 Lok Sabha election would have been far in excess of their combined audited income of Rs 716.90 crore. Clearly, the Congress and the BJP need to generate a significant amount in cash to fill the official funding gap in an election year as well as pay the administrative costs of running national political organisations.<br /><br />There are 28 state assembly and seven Union territory elections and at least one Lok Sabha poll during every five-year cycle - a minimum of 36 elections overall, or more than seven elections a year. The annual electoral funding gap is therefore large. Where does this money - all of it black - come from? Three sources: one, off-balance sheet cash donations by large and medium companies seeking quid pro quo favours from MPs when elected, leading to a corrupt political-business nexus. Two, wealthy individual donors, again in return for post-dated political favours. And three, scams.<br /><br />Scams are of several kinds: illegal commissions from public-private partnership infrastructure projects, mining leases and arbitrary land acquisitions; leakages from social sector schemes like MNREGA where party middlemen skim off the cream; irregular allocation of natural resources (including telecom spectrum); and inflated civic projects in large events such as the Commonwealth Games. This vast infrastructure of corruption can only be dismantled with targeted electoral reforms.<br /><br />In recent weeks, politicians cutting across party lines have rediscovered the primacy of Parliament in democracy. They have shown great concern for following due process on parliamentary legislation and, as the prime minister stated, ensuring that all new laws are passed within the framework of the Constitution. This concern for the purity of parliamentary democracy is at odds with the state of Parliament itself. Shockingly, 76 MPs - including 13 Congress and 19 BJP MPs - in the current Lok Sabha (14% of its total strength) have serious criminal charges framed against them by a court of law. These are not politically motivated charges. They include, as per affidavits filed with the EC, &quot;murder, rape, kidnapping, extortion, forgery, bribery, dacoity and causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons&quot;. When 14% of our lawmakers are charged as lawbreakers, Parliament stands undermined. The presence of tainted elected Lok Sabha MPs poses a greater threat to Indian parliamentary democracy than any number of unelected citizen-activists.<br /><br />Since there is no practical way to limit the use of black money in election funding, two specific electoral reforms are necessary to cleanse Parliament. First, the EC must have the power to deregister (it currently only has the power to derecognise) a political party which gives tickets in a Lok Sabha or assembly election to candidates with criminal chargesheets framed by a trial court, implying prima facie malfeasance. The law ministry has already begun drafting a Bill that proposes changes in the Representation of People's Act. The amendment would disallow candidates charged with criminal offences punishable with a jail sentence of more than five years from contesting any election. To weed out politically motivated charges, there will be a caveat: such charges should have been framed at least a year before the date of filing nominations.<br /><br />Second, the EC must impose strict tenure limitations (say, five years) on the post of party president of every registered political party, with all related family members included in the mandated five-year ceiling. This will mitigate the damaging feudalism that has made many of our parties function like family dynasties, allowing unprofessional hierarchies to flourish.<br /><br />During the forthcoming monsoon session, Parliament will discuss a slew of reformist legislation including the Lokpal Bill. But the Lokpal Bill is only one of several electoral and governance reforms that should be on Parliament's agenda. Making the CBI autonomous and implementing the 2006 Supreme Court directive on police reforms are both long overdue. The Judicial Standards and Accountability and Right to Justice Bills are equally vital for delivering swift, fair justice. The people's will is sovereign; Parliament is subordinate to that will. A Lok Sabha tainted by 76 criminally charged MPs undermines that will, diminishes parliamentary democracy and sullies the Constitution. </div><div align="justify">&nbsp;</div><div align="justify"><em>The writer is an author and chairman of a media group.&nbsp; </em><br /></div>               </font>
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The audited balance sheets of the six largest political parties in India are hard to get and harder to decipher: they hide more than they reveal but are nonetheless worth close examination. Between them, the Congress, BJP, BSP, SP, NCP and CPM reported total income of Rs 1,046.76 crore for the year ending March 31, 2009. That was the year in which most of the funds for the 2009 Lok Sabha election were collected and deployed.<br />
<br />
The Congress reported total income of Rs 496.88 crore, expenditure of Rs 274.75 crore and net profit of Rs 222.13 crore in fiscal 2009. The BJP showed total income of Rs 220.02 crore. Between them, the Congress and the BJP have 322 MPs in the 15th Lok Sabha. What does it cost an MP to mount a successful election campaign for a Lok Sabha seat? Best estimates from independent sources - and from the Election Commission (EC) itself - put the figure at an average of Rs 10 crore per MP. Taking into account the two parties' winning and losing candidates, actual expenditure by the Congress and the BJP in the 2009 Lok Sabha election would have been far in excess of their combined audited income of Rs 716.90 crore. Clearly, the Congress and the BJP need to generate a significant amount in cash to fill the official funding gap in an election year as well as pay the administrative costs of running national political organisations.<br />
<br />
There are 28 state assembly and seven Union territory elections and at least one Lok Sabha poll during every five-year cycle - a minimum of 36 elections overall, or more than seven elections a year. The annual electoral funding gap is therefore large. Where does this money - all of it black - come from? Three sources: one, off-balance sheet cash donations by large and medium companies seeking quid pro quo favours from MPs when elected, leading to a corrupt political-business nexus. Two, wealthy individual donors, again in return for post-dated political favours. And three, scams.<br />
<br />
Scams are of several kinds: illegal commissions from public-private partnership infrastructure projects, mining leases and arbitrary land acquisitions; leakages from social sector schemes like MNREGA where party middlemen skim off the cream; irregular allocation of natural resources (including telecom spectrum); and inflated civic projects in large events such as the Commonwealth Games. This vast infrastructure of corruption can only be dismantled with targeted electoral reforms.<br />
<br />
In recent weeks, politicians cutting across party lines have rediscovered the primacy of Parliament in democracy. They have shown great concern for following due process on parliamentary legislation and, as the prime minister stated, ensuring that all new laws are passed within the framework of the Constitution. This concern for the purity of parliamentary democracy is at odds with the state of Parliament itself. Shockingly, 76 MPs - including 13 Congress and 19 BJP MPs - in the current Lok Sabha (14% of its total strength) have serious criminal charges framed against them by a court of law. These are not politically motivated charges. They include, as per affidavits filed with the EC, &quot;murder, rape, kidnapping, extortion, forgery, bribery, dacoity and causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons&quot;. When 14% of our lawmakers are charged as lawbreakers, Parliament stands undermined. The presence of tainted elected Lok Sabha MPs poses a greater threat to Indian parliamentary democracy than any number of unelected citizen-activists.<br />
<br />
Since there is no practical way to limit the use of black money in election funding, two specific electoral reforms are necessary to cleanse Parliament. First, the EC must have the power to deregister (it currently only has the power to derecognise) a political party which gives tickets in a Lok Sabha or assembly election to candidates with criminal chargesheets framed by a trial court, implying prima facie malfeasance. The law ministry has already begun drafting a Bill that proposes changes in the Representation of People's Act. The amendment would disallow candidates charged with criminal offences punishable with a jail sentence of more than five years from contesting any election. To weed out politically motivated charges, there will be a caveat: such charges should have been framed at least a year before the date of filing nominations.<br />
<br />
Second, the EC must impose strict tenure limitations (say, five years) on the post of party president of every registered political party, with all related family members included in the mandated five-year ceiling. This will mitigate the damaging feudalism that has made many of our parties function like family dynasties, allowing unprofessional hierarchies to flourish.<br />
<br />
During the forthcoming monsoon session, Parliament will discuss a slew of reformist legislation including the Lokpal Bill. But the Lokpal Bill is only one of several electoral and governance reforms that should be on Parliament's agenda. Making the CBI autonomous and implementing the 2006 Supreme Court directive on police reforms are both long overdue. The Judicial Standards and Accountability and Right to Justice Bills are equally vital for delivering swift, fair justice. The people's will is sovereign; Parliament is subordinate to that will. A Lok Sabha tainted by 76 criminally charged MPs undermines that will, diminishes parliamentary democracy and sullies the Constitution. 
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&nbsp;
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<em>The writer is an author and chairman of a media group.&nbsp; </em><br />
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The audited balance sheets of the six largest political parties in India are hard to get and harder to decipher: they hide more than they reveal but are nonetheless worth close examination. Between them, the Congress, BJP, BSP, SP, NCP...',
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Taking into account the two parties' winning and losing candidates, actual expenditure by the Congress and the BJP in the 2009 Lok Sabha election would have been far in excess of their combined audited income of Rs 716.90 crore. Clearly, the Congress and the BJP need to generate a significant amount in cash to fill the official funding gap in an election year as well as pay the administrative costs of running national political organisations.<br /><br />There are 28 state assembly and seven Union territory elections and at least one Lok Sabha poll during every five-year cycle - a minimum of 36 elections overall, or more than seven elections a year. The annual electoral funding gap is therefore large. Where does this money - all of it black - come from? Three sources: one, off-balance sheet cash donations by large and medium companies seeking quid pro quo favours from MPs when elected, leading to a corrupt political-business nexus. Two, wealthy individual donors, again in return for post-dated political favours. And three, scams.<br /><br />Scams are of several kinds: illegal commissions from public-private partnership infrastructure projects, mining leases and arbitrary land acquisitions; leakages from social sector schemes like MNREGA where party middlemen skim off the cream; irregular allocation of natural resources (including telecom spectrum); and inflated civic projects in large events such as the Commonwealth Games. This vast infrastructure of corruption can only be dismantled with targeted electoral reforms.<br /><br />In recent weeks, politicians cutting across party lines have rediscovered the primacy of Parliament in democracy. They have shown great concern for following due process on parliamentary legislation and, as the prime minister stated, ensuring that all new laws are passed within the framework of the Constitution. This concern for the purity of parliamentary democracy is at odds with the state of Parliament itself. Shockingly, 76 MPs - including 13 Congress and 19 BJP MPs - in the current Lok Sabha (14% of its total strength) have serious criminal charges framed against them by a court of law. These are not politically motivated charges. They include, as per affidavits filed with the EC, &quot;murder, rape, kidnapping, extortion, forgery, bribery, dacoity and causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons&quot;. When 14% of our lawmakers are charged as lawbreakers, Parliament stands undermined. The presence of tainted elected Lok Sabha MPs poses a greater threat to Indian parliamentary democracy than any number of unelected citizen-activists.<br /><br />Since there is no practical way to limit the use of black money in election funding, two specific electoral reforms are necessary to cleanse Parliament. First, the EC must have the power to deregister (it currently only has the power to derecognise) a political party which gives tickets in a Lok Sabha or assembly election to candidates with criminal chargesheets framed by a trial court, implying prima facie malfeasance. The law ministry has already begun drafting a Bill that proposes changes in the Representation of People's Act. The amendment would disallow candidates charged with criminal offences punishable with a jail sentence of more than five years from contesting any election. To weed out politically motivated charges, there will be a caveat: such charges should have been framed at least a year before the date of filing nominations.<br /><br />Second, the EC must impose strict tenure limitations (say, five years) on the post of party president of every registered political party, with all related family members included in the mandated five-year ceiling. This will mitigate the damaging feudalism that has made many of our parties function like family dynasties, allowing unprofessional hierarchies to flourish.<br /><br />During the forthcoming monsoon session, Parliament will discuss a slew of reformist legislation including the Lokpal Bill. But the Lokpal Bill is only one of several electoral and governance reforms that should be on Parliament's agenda. Making the CBI autonomous and implementing the 2006 Supreme Court directive on police reforms are both long overdue. The Judicial Standards and Accountability and Right to Justice Bills are equally vital for delivering swift, fair justice. The people's will is sovereign; Parliament is subordinate to that will. A Lok Sabha tainted by 76 criminally charged MPs undermines that will, diminishes parliamentary democracy and sullies the Constitution. </div><div align="justify">&nbsp;</div><div align="justify"><em>The writer is an author and chairman of a media group.&nbsp; </em><br /></div>',
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The audited balance sheets of the six largest political parties in India are hard to get and harder to decipher: they hide more than they reveal but are nonetheless worth close examination. Between them, the Congress, BJP, BSP, SP, NCP and CPM reported total income of Rs 1,046.76 crore for the year ending March 31, 2009. That was the year in which most of the funds for the 2009 Lok Sabha election were collected and deployed.<br />
<br />
The Congress reported total income of Rs 496.88 crore, expenditure of Rs 274.75 crore and net profit of Rs 222.13 crore in fiscal 2009. The BJP showed total income of Rs 220.02 crore. Between them, the Congress and the BJP have 322 MPs in the 15th Lok Sabha. What does it cost an MP to mount a successful election campaign for a Lok Sabha seat? Best estimates from independent sources - and from the Election Commission (EC) itself - put the figure at an average of Rs 10 crore per MP. Taking into account the two parties' winning and losing candidates, actual expenditure by the Congress and the BJP in the 2009 Lok Sabha election would have been far in excess of their combined audited income of Rs 716.90 crore. Clearly, the Congress and the BJP need to generate a significant amount in cash to fill the official funding gap in an election year as well as pay the administrative costs of running national political organisations.<br />
<br />
There are 28 state assembly and seven Union territory elections and at least one Lok Sabha poll during every five-year cycle - a minimum of 36 elections overall, or more than seven elections a year. The annual electoral funding gap is therefore large. Where does this money - all of it black - come from? Three sources: one, off-balance sheet cash donations by large and medium companies seeking quid pro quo favours from MPs when elected, leading to a corrupt political-business nexus. Two, wealthy individual donors, again in return for post-dated political favours. And three, scams.<br />
<br />
Scams are of several kinds: illegal commissions from public-private partnership infrastructure projects, mining leases and arbitrary land acquisitions; leakages from social sector schemes like MNREGA where party middlemen skim off the cream; irregular allocation of natural resources (including telecom spectrum); and inflated civic projects in large events such as the Commonwealth Games. This vast infrastructure of corruption can only be dismantled with targeted electoral reforms.<br />
<br />
In recent weeks, politicians cutting across party lines have rediscovered the primacy of Parliament in democracy. They have shown great concern for following due process on parliamentary legislation and, as the prime minister stated, ensuring that all new laws are passed within the framework of the Constitution. This concern for the purity of parliamentary democracy is at odds with the state of Parliament itself. Shockingly, 76 MPs - including 13 Congress and 19 BJP MPs - in the current Lok Sabha (14% of its total strength) have serious criminal charges framed against them by a court of law. These are not politically motivated charges. They include, as per affidavits filed with the EC, &quot;murder, rape, kidnapping, extortion, forgery, bribery, dacoity and causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons&quot;. When 14% of our lawmakers are charged as lawbreakers, Parliament stands undermined. The presence of tainted elected Lok Sabha MPs poses a greater threat to Indian parliamentary democracy than any number of unelected citizen-activists.<br />
<br />
Since there is no practical way to limit the use of black money in election funding, two specific electoral reforms are necessary to cleanse Parliament. First, the EC must have the power to deregister (it currently only has the power to derecognise) a political party which gives tickets in a Lok Sabha or assembly election to candidates with criminal chargesheets framed by a trial court, implying prima facie malfeasance. The law ministry has already begun drafting a Bill that proposes changes in the Representation of People's Act. The amendment would disallow candidates charged with criminal offences punishable with a jail sentence of more than five years from contesting any election. To weed out politically motivated charges, there will be a caveat: such charges should have been framed at least a year before the date of filing nominations.<br />
<br />
Second, the EC must impose strict tenure limitations (say, five years) on the post of party president of every registered political party, with all related family members included in the mandated five-year ceiling. This will mitigate the damaging feudalism that has made many of our parties function like family dynasties, allowing unprofessional hierarchies to flourish.<br />
<br />
During the forthcoming monsoon session, Parliament will discuss a slew of reformist legislation including the Lokpal Bill. But the Lokpal Bill is only one of several electoral and governance reforms that should be on Parliament's agenda. Making the CBI autonomous and implementing the 2006 Supreme Court directive on police reforms are both long overdue. The Judicial Standards and Accountability and Right to Justice Bills are equally vital for delivering swift, fair justice. The people's will is sovereign; Parliament is subordinate to that will. A Lok Sabha tainted by 76 criminally charged MPs undermines that will, diminishes parliamentary democracy and sullies the Constitution. 
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<em>The writer is an author and chairman of a media group.&nbsp; </em><br />
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$metaTitle = 'LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Who will watch the watchmen? by Minhaz Merchant'
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The audited balance sheets of the six largest political parties in India are hard to get and harder to decipher: they hide more than they reveal but are nonetheless worth close examination. Between them, the Congress, BJP, BSP, SP, NCP...'
$disp = '<div align="justify">The audited balance sheets of the six largest political parties in India are hard to get and harder to decipher: they hide more than they reveal but are nonetheless worth close examination. Between them, the Congress, BJP, BSP, SP, NCP and CPM reported total income of Rs 1,046.76 crore for the year ending March 31, 2009. That was the year in which most of the funds for the 2009 Lok Sabha election were collected and deployed.<br /><br />The Congress reported total income of Rs 496.88 crore, expenditure of Rs 274.75 crore and net profit of Rs 222.13 crore in fiscal 2009. The BJP showed total income of Rs 220.02 crore. Between them, the Congress and the BJP have 322 MPs in the 15th Lok Sabha. What does it cost an MP to mount a successful election campaign for a Lok Sabha seat? Best estimates from independent sources - and from the Election Commission (EC) itself - put the figure at an average of Rs 10 crore per MP. Taking into account the two parties' winning and losing candidates, actual expenditure by the Congress and the BJP in the 2009 Lok Sabha election would have been far in excess of their combined audited income of Rs 716.90 crore. Clearly, the Congress and the BJP need to generate a significant amount in cash to fill the official funding gap in an election year as well as pay the administrative costs of running national political organisations.<br /><br />There are 28 state assembly and seven Union territory elections and at least one Lok Sabha poll during every five-year cycle - a minimum of 36 elections overall, or more than seven elections a year. The annual electoral funding gap is therefore large. Where does this money - all of it black - come from? Three sources: one, off-balance sheet cash donations by large and medium companies seeking quid pro quo favours from MPs when elected, leading to a corrupt political-business nexus. Two, wealthy individual donors, again in return for post-dated political favours. And three, scams.<br /><br />Scams are of several kinds: illegal commissions from public-private partnership infrastructure projects, mining leases and arbitrary land acquisitions; leakages from social sector schemes like MNREGA where party middlemen skim off the cream; irregular allocation of natural resources (including telecom spectrum); and inflated civic projects in large events such as the Commonwealth Games. This vast infrastructure of corruption can only be dismantled with targeted electoral reforms.<br /><br />In recent weeks, politicians cutting across party lines have rediscovered the primacy of Parliament in democracy. They have shown great concern for following due process on parliamentary legislation and, as the prime minister stated, ensuring that all new laws are passed within the framework of the Constitution. This concern for the purity of parliamentary democracy is at odds with the state of Parliament itself. Shockingly, 76 MPs - including 13 Congress and 19 BJP MPs - in the current Lok Sabha (14% of its total strength) have serious criminal charges framed against them by a court of law. These are not politically motivated charges. They include, as per affidavits filed with the EC, &quot;murder, rape, kidnapping, extortion, forgery, bribery, dacoity and causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons&quot;. When 14% of our lawmakers are charged as lawbreakers, Parliament stands undermined. The presence of tainted elected Lok Sabha MPs poses a greater threat to Indian parliamentary democracy than any number of unelected citizen-activists.<br /><br />Since there is no practical way to limit the use of black money in election funding, two specific electoral reforms are necessary to cleanse Parliament. First, the EC must have the power to deregister (it currently only has the power to derecognise) a political party which gives tickets in a Lok Sabha or assembly election to candidates with criminal chargesheets framed by a trial court, implying prima facie malfeasance. The law ministry has already begun drafting a Bill that proposes changes in the Representation of People's Act. The amendment would disallow candidates charged with criminal offences punishable with a jail sentence of more than five years from contesting any election. To weed out politically motivated charges, there will be a caveat: such charges should have been framed at least a year before the date of filing nominations.<br /><br />Second, the EC must impose strict tenure limitations (say, five years) on the post of party president of every registered political party, with all related family members included in the mandated five-year ceiling. This will mitigate the damaging feudalism that has made many of our parties function like family dynasties, allowing unprofessional hierarchies to flourish.<br /><br />During the forthcoming monsoon session, Parliament will discuss a slew of reformist legislation including the Lokpal Bill. But the Lokpal Bill is only one of several electoral and governance reforms that should be on Parliament's agenda. Making the CBI autonomous and implementing the 2006 Supreme Court directive on police reforms are both long overdue. The Judicial Standards and Accountability and Right to Justice Bills are equally vital for delivering swift, fair justice. The people's will is sovereign; Parliament is subordinate to that will. A Lok Sabha tainted by 76 criminally charged MPs undermines that will, diminishes parliamentary democracy and sullies the Constitution. </div><div align="justify">&nbsp;</div><div align="justify"><em>The writer is an author and chairman of a media group.&nbsp; </em><br /></div>'
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Who will watch the watchmen? by Minhaz Merchant

The audited balance sheets of the six largest political parties in India are hard to get and harder to decipher: they hide more than they reveal but are nonetheless worth close examination. Between them, the Congress, BJP, BSP, SP, NCP and CPM reported total income of Rs 1,046.76 crore for the year ending March 31, 2009. That was the year in which most of the funds for the 2009 Lok Sabha election were collected and deployed. The Congress reported total income of Rs 496.88 crore, expenditure of Rs 274.75 crore and net profit of Rs 222.13 crore in fiscal 2009. The BJP showed total income of Rs 220.02 crore. Between them, the Congress and the BJP have 322 MPs in the 15th Lok Sabha. What does it cost an MP to mount a successful election campaign for a Lok Sabha seat? Best estimates from independent sources - and from the Election Commission (EC) itself - put the figure at an average of Rs 10 crore per MP. Taking into account the two parties' winning and losing candidates, actual expenditure by the Congress and the BJP in the 2009 Lok Sabha election would have been far in excess of their combined audited income of Rs 716.90 crore. Clearly, the Congress and the BJP need to generate a significant amount in cash to fill the official funding gap in an election year as well as pay the administrative costs of running national political organisations. There are 28 state assembly and seven Union territory elections and at least one Lok Sabha poll during every five-year cycle - a minimum of 36 elections overall, or more than seven elections a year. The annual electoral funding gap is therefore large. Where does this money - all of it black - come from? Three sources: one, off-balance sheet cash donations by large and medium companies seeking quid pro quo favours from MPs when elected, leading to a corrupt political-business nexus. Two, wealthy individual donors, again in return for post-dated political favours. And three, scams. Scams are of several kinds: illegal commissions from public-private partnership infrastructure projects, mining leases and arbitrary land acquisitions; leakages from social sector schemes like MNREGA where party middlemen skim off the cream; irregular allocation of natural resources (including telecom spectrum); and inflated civic projects in large events such as the Commonwealth Games. This vast infrastructure of corruption can only be dismantled with targeted electoral reforms. In recent weeks, politicians cutting across party lines have rediscovered the primacy of Parliament in democracy. They have shown great concern for following due process on parliamentary legislation and, as the prime minister stated, ensuring that all new laws are passed within the framework of the Constitution. This concern for the purity of parliamentary democracy is at odds with the state of Parliament itself. Shockingly, 76 MPs - including 13 Congress and 19 BJP MPs - in the current Lok Sabha (14% of its total strength) have serious criminal charges framed against them by a court of law. These are not politically motivated charges. They include, as per affidavits filed with the EC, "murder, rape, kidnapping, extortion, forgery, bribery, dacoity and causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons". When 14% of our lawmakers are charged as lawbreakers, Parliament stands undermined. The presence of tainted elected Lok Sabha MPs poses a greater threat to Indian parliamentary democracy than any number of unelected citizen-activists. Since there is no practical way to limit the use of black money in election funding, two specific electoral reforms are necessary to cleanse Parliament. First, the EC must have the power to deregister (it currently only has the power to derecognise) a political party which gives tickets in a Lok Sabha or assembly election to candidates with criminal chargesheets framed by a trial court, implying prima facie malfeasance. The law ministry has already begun drafting a Bill that proposes changes in the Representation of People's Act. The amendment would disallow candidates charged with criminal offences punishable with a jail sentence of more than five years from contesting any election. To weed out politically motivated charges, there will be a caveat: such charges should have been framed at least a year before the date of filing nominations. Second, the EC must impose strict tenure limitations (say, five years) on the post of party president of every registered political party, with all related family members included in the mandated five-year ceiling. This will mitigate the damaging feudalism that has made many of our parties function like family dynasties, allowing unprofessional hierarchies to flourish. During the forthcoming monsoon session, Parliament will discuss a slew of reformist legislation including the Lokpal Bill. But the Lokpal Bill is only one of several electoral and governance reforms that should be on Parliament's agenda. Making the CBI autonomous and implementing the 2006 Supreme Court directive on police reforms are both long overdue. The Judicial Standards and Accountability and Right to Justice Bills are equally vital for delivering swift, fair justice. The people's will is sovereign; Parliament is subordinate to that will. A Lok Sabha tainted by 76 criminally charged MPs undermines that will, diminishes parliamentary democracy and sullies the Constitution.   The writer is an author and chairman of a media group.