States must set up fund to meet poll expenses, says Karan Singh

Amid social activisit Anna Hazare’s announcement to launch agitation for electoral reforms, diplomat-parliamentarian Karan Singh today stressed the need for an overhaul of the country’s election funding mechanism.

India can, on this, emulate some mechanism on the lines of the United States, which spends more on funding elections but collects donations in a transparent way, the Congress party leader said in his address during an event here organised by the Indo-American Society.

Referring to Hazare’s 13-day Gandhian agitation in the capital and the debate on the anti-corruption Lok Pal Bill in Parliament, Singh — a Rajya Sabha member and former ambassador to the US — said they led to people’s power coalescing with that of Parliament’s. “Democracy rose to the occasion,” the octogenarian told the gathering at his talk on “India — the Unfinished Revolutions’.

Singh admitted that Hazare’s was a radical movement that caught country-wide attention, but noted parliamentary democracy was the “only solution for governance and management”.

Singh, 80, said a transformation was taking place across the globe. Old institutions are collapsing and new ones are being built. In such a scenario Indians too require to introspect.

“There is also the need for an economic revolution,” he said. “While it is good that the high rate of GDP growth is adding the number of billionaires in the country, it is also necessary to ensure that the fruits of the economic reforms reach out to the poor in society. After 64 years of Independence, it is unacceptable to have people dying of starvation even as food coffers are filled to the brim.”

Singh called for a need to plug leaks in the disbursement of funds under the country’s various social welfare schemes so that the money reaches the deserving.