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To:
http://blogs.economictimes.indiatimes.com/et-editorials/aap-stays-champion-of-transparent-campaign-finance-in-india/
A breakaway unit of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), called the AVAM, has claimed
that the AAP has got campaign fund of Rs 2 crore from four different companies
that share the same address and are not known to have any regular source of
income.AAP has been the pioneer of transparent campaign finance in India,
accepting donations online or by cheques and listing the inflow of funds almost
daily on its website. This is a far cry from what any Indian political party,
ranging from the BJP and Congress, to smaller outfits like the NCP, Samajwadi
Party or BSP, are willing to do. If AVAM’s charge that this amount —paltry by
today’s political expenses — amounts to laundering money, then why did the
money arrive through cheques and why did the AAP bother to record the donations
on its website?The biggest source of graft in India is political funding,
mostly delivered and accepted in banknotes, which generates a huge demand for a
cash economy, readily fuelled by all levels of administration, including the
bureaucracy, municipal officials and police administrations. AAP has pioneered
one way of eliminating this source of graft by transparent sourcing and
reporting contributions.The other has to come from monitoring political
expenditure at every level, from the polling booth upwards. Every party must
declare its expenses and other parties, the media and watchdog bodies should
vet them. The Election Commission can finalise the figure, taking claim and
challenge into account, and the party must be asked to show its source of
income for that expenditure. This would pave the way for transparent funding.
It would help if corporate donors, the biggest financiers of politics, channel
all their funding through open, transparent means, instead of funding crony
politicians.This piece appeared as an editorial opinion in the print edition of
The Economic Times.
