Lead by example
As citizens are subjected to the unrelenting grind of demonetization, they are told this is in the interest of digitising India and ridding it of black money. To make this argument more convincing than it is currently, the Modi government must address the very fount of corruption and black money in our society: political funding. As an Election Commission background paper points out, money used to fund political parties or candidates in a non-transparent manner undermines the core principles of democracy. The rot begins here. It follows, therefore, that digital sanitization must begin here too.
For stemming the flow of black money into politics, a most recent EC recommendation is to lower the cap for anonymous donations from Rs 20,000 to Rs 2,000. This will help only at the margins, because the current practice is to subdivide unaccounted funds into units below Rs 20,000 and claim anonymity for them. The same sharp practice can be followed if a window of anonymity is allowed below Rs 2,000: it’s just that one will have to claim ten times more anonymous donations. To give an example of how preposterous current claims are, in the election year 2013-14 BJP reported donations in excess of Rs 20,000 at just Rs 167 crore, Congress Rs 66 crore and BSP zero.
To end this charade and walk the talk of building a cashless society, the laws must be amended to mandate that all donations to political parties can only be in digital format. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has appealed to 125 crore Indians, small traders and businessmen, farmers, washermen, vegetable vendors, milk suppliers, newspaper vendors, tea stall owners and chanaa sellers to bear with the hardships of transitioning to cashless transactions because that will take India to new economic heights. In that case, why should only political parties be exempt and continue to wallow in cash?
With 80% of the 1,800 parties registered in India not having contested any election in the last few years, many of them look like setups to launder money. Mandating a digital trail will put paid to this rot. More broadly the political class cannot be shielded from the tribulations and trends of the rest of society. If it claims to want to rid society of black money, it should lead by example.
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