-The Times of India LUCKNOW: Breaking ranks with the other parties, the Samajwadi Party on Thursday said it favoured a mechanism of checks and balances for transparency in the functioning of the political parties. The SP was referring to the June 3, 2013, ruling of the chief information commissioner (CIC) that says political parties come under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. Almost all national parties have opposed the CIC ruling. National...

-The Hindu New Delhi should stop its flip-flops and adopt a coherent policy in its negotiations on greenhouse gas emissions If the great Scott Fitzgerald were to have walked into the grand plenary hall of the Durban climate conference in 2011 to announce once again, "show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy," all fingers would have pointed to the tiny Indian contingent in the room. There, Fitzgerald would...

-The Hindu     While the legitimacy of political parties depends on their acceptance of financial transparency under the RTI Act, their internal decision-making processes should be left alone The Central Information Commission (CIC) decision declaring political parties as public authorities under the Right to Information Act has again pit the political class against the people. Political parties have increasingly lost legitimacy due to opaque financing, cultivation of individuals with a criminal background, subversion of...

-The Economic Times The information commissioner's order asking that stringent disclosure norms prevail on political parties is a welcome move. Transparency with regard to political parties, especially when it concerns funding, is extremely important in a democracy as this is where political corruption begins. In the past, there have been allegations of quid pro quo between big corporate houses, who fund parties in elections, and policy changes effected to suit them. Some...

-The Business Standard But RTI is not the tool to impose transparency on parties There is no doubt that much is wrong with how elections in India are financed. In India, as in most democratic countries, the need for political funding is often what causes cronyism and outright corruption - in fact, more than one politician, cutting across party lines, is on record making this argument. It is necessary, certainly, to introduce...