Throughout the past many decades, illegal money has sneaked into political funding, with large sums donated by big corporates and black-money holders. The increase in the number of legislative representatives with a criminal record also points to the opacity of political funding in India as people with black money and power buy their way into politics.
According to a recent report, the political funding received by the parties has been pegged at Rs. 2,777.97 crore over the 2014-2019 period. The massive amount of political funding and the presence of illegal money in electoral funds is evident from the fact that only three of the 11 mainstream parties have declared their sources of donations received during the 2019 elections. A total of Rs. 372.5 crores were deposited without proper documentation and from accounts without a PAN number linked with them. The maximum amount of donation from unaccounted sources was collected in the 2014-2015 elections. According to the ADR report that was published in 2017, political funding from unknown sources was more rampant in national parties than regional parties, with 71% of national parties’ income not accounted for.
At the same time, for the regional parties the percentage was somewhat less, with 58% of the total income from unknown sources.
The increased instances of corruption and the election of criminally accused candidates directly points at the lacunae in the electoral process, which lacks strong rules to check illegal funding of political activities. The current rules are weak and easily circumvented by corrupt parties.
Money is the fuel of Indian politics and illegal black money is used by many powerful people to influence political outcomes. The money needed to run election campaigns has increased manifold, which has allowed non-political people and businessmen to control the fate of India. Indian politics is supposed to be democratic, with greater participation of the people. This participation can come with greater transparency in the electoral process.
However, instead of being beacons of truth as the people’s representatives, politicians are often seen as symbols of corruption. A politician’s involvement in illegal money does not come as a surprise to people. Nobody bats an eyelid when they are found to be connected with big scams and criminal activities.
Indian politics has the power to decide the fate of the nation’s 1.2 billion people and that power is shared by the few people’s representatives that sit in the Indian Parliament and state assemblies, taking important decisions for the country. It is very important that the process of choosing these candidates be high on transparency, so that people can take an informed decision. A transparent electoral process will keep the flow of illegal money into political party funds in check and prohibit money power from manipulating political power.
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