-The Hindu The former Chief Election Commissioner on the EVM controversy, why the Supreme Court’s verdict on criminals in politics is a missed opportunity, and electoral bonds The debate on the reliability of electronic voting machines (EVMs) refuses to settle, with political parties continuing to voice their concerns about malfunctioning machines. Former Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi explains how EVMs work, why he is disappointed with the Supreme Court for refusing to...
More »SEARCH RESULT
An invitation to corruption? -Suhrith Parthasarathy
-The Hindu The Electoral Bond Scheme inhibits the citizen’s capacity to meaningfully participate in political and public life Early this year the government introduced an Electoral Bond Scheme purportedly with a view to cleansing the prevailing culture of political sponsorship. But the programme’s failings have been so blindingly obvious, and its consequences so utterly devastating to rectitude and transparency in government, that even O.P. Rawat, who just retired Chief Election Commissioner, thought...
More »Despite 'reform', political parties are getting large anonymous Donations -Ruhi Tewari
-ThePrint.in Data shows 99.9% of all electoral bonds bought so far are worth Rs 10 lakh or 1 crore. These bonds do not bear name of the donor. New Delhi: Electoral bonds, brought in to make the system of political funding “more transparent”, seem to have further concentrated Donations in the hands of corporates and other high net-worth donors, instead of democratising them. Nearly 100 per cent of the bonds purchased so...
More »Only 9% Of Declared Income of India's National Parties Comes From Sources Known To The Public -Aman Kumar
-TheCitizen.in NEW DELHI: The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) on August 7 released a report detailing the Donations declared by regional political parties to the Election Commission (EC) for the 2016-17 financial year. Of the 48 parties considered in the report, 16 including the People’s Democratic Party and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen have yet to submit their declarations to the EC. A further six claim to have received no contributions at...
More »The path to reforms: Ensure enforcement, bring clarity - Devesh Kapur, E Sridharan and Milan Vaishnav
-Hindustan Times Election Commission of India (ECI) is outgunned when it comes to confronting those who circumvent existing campaign finance rules and lacks power to sanction candidates. It is a truism to note that political finance sits at the heart of corruption in modern India. While politicians publicly lament the status quo, they privately profit from the current system. Therefore, the fact that the Narendra Modi government has made reforming political finance...
More »