CHENNAI: Political parties, particularly the Opposition in Tamil Nadu, are not happy with the electoral bond schemes for political donations rolled out by the Centre on Tuesday. They are of the view that this new method would only favour the ruling party and the only way to end the irregularities in political donations is to introduce State funding of elections.
DMK spokesperson T K S Elangovan felt that by introducing the scheme, the ruling party at the Centre somehow wanted to stop other political parties from getting donations. The BJP has already topped in receiving donations from corporates.
“This will only create a situation in which other political parties will not be receiving more funds. Now that donation could be made through electoral bonds, it will be clear to which political party it is given. So the donor will be afraid of the party in power. This scheme will affect the privacy in terms of donations to political parties and when anything affects the privacy, it will only favour the party in power.
Anyway, let the government make known the final proposal and then the DMK will give its full view,” Elangovan said. TNCC president S Thirunavukkarasar is of the view that though it was a seemingly welcome move at the first instance, the ruling party at the State and Centre will have more advantages by implementing the scheme. This could be a plan of the ruling party to get more funds from the donors.
“The Centre should have consulted all political parties in advance on how the funding should be made. The methods being adopted for political funding in other countries should be considered and suitable methods can be implemented in India. The Election Commission also moots some discussions in the presence of representatives from the finance and income tax departments about the method that could be adopted for our country,” Thirunavukkarasar said.
The TNCC chief said above all, the money spent by candidates for election should be reduced. “If it is not done, even if the candidate is good, he cannot contest the election if he cannot afford the election expenses. Such a situation will not augur well for a democracy. Measures like reducing the number of campaign days for the elections should be considered so that expenses incurred by the candidates could be brought down,” he said.
VCK general secretary D Ravikumar is of the view that the electoral bonds scheme would not bring any change nor would it help in improving transparency in political funding. “The purchaser of electoral bonds can buy the bonds only as per the Know Your Customer (KYC) norms. Though the bonds won’t have the names of the purchaser, it will be there in the records. So the beneficiary political party could also be known to the government. On that count, we can say it is an effort to bring accountability. However, in reality, most of the donors will not donate funds under these rules,” Ravikumar observed.
He said already there was a system where the donor and beneficiary political parties could be traced. Instead of giving funds through cheques, they have to do it in the form of bonds. Hence the introduction of electoral bonds would not bring any change in the corporate funding. “Only the method is being changed.
That is all. It will not increase the transparency in corporate funding. Perhaps, better transparency may come if all payments are made compulsorily digital. The only solution to this problem is State funding of elections, which has been pending for a long time,” he added.
“We are opposing this scheme for many reasons. To put an end to corporate funding, the government should introduce the State funding of elections,” CPM state secretary G Ramakrishnan said.
However, political analyst S Raveenthran Thuraiswamy termed it a welcome move, which would ensure transparency in political funding. All recognised parties are given the same footing. The only objectionable feature in this method was the tax exemption allowed for the funds given through electoral bonds since political parties are not charitable organisations, he said.