Explore Business Standard
Political Funding In India
As election campaigns started across the country, environmentalists demand that political parties take the digital and other non-conventional ways of electioneering to minimise the impact of non-biodegradable poll materials on nature. Political parties should rely mostly on social media to reach voters and shun flexes and plastic flags that litter streets once the polling is over and many a time reach waterbodies polluting them or block drains causing them to overflow. Parties blame the need for visibility factor in elections behind the use of those materials and promise to address the issue. Environmentalist Somendra Mohan Ghosh asked, Why can't we come out of campaigns by putting up flexes, plastic flags even in remote rural parts which create a non-biodegradable mess and put a strain on the environment? Shifting to the digital mode for election campaigning should not be a distant dream in the present age as mobile phones with internet are available even in remote areas of the ..
Former chief election commissioner S Y Quraishi on Friday pitched for enhanced transparency in political funding, saying people should know who is giving money to parties. In a video interview with PTI, he said transparency of political funding is extremely important for free and fair elections. "Free and fair elections are the basic structure of the Indian Constitution," he underlined. He said it is important for people to know what kind of money -- dirty money or drug money -- is coming. He said it was important to know the nexus between the donors and government policies "as there are no free lunches". People want to know who is funding the government (apparently referring to the ruling party), he said. He said there may be instances that those donating may end up grabbing licences, contracts, bank loans "on which they default." "All these things have to be in the public domain," he said. His remarks come against the backdrop of the Supreme Court on Friday admonishing the St
A five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court is scheduled to commence hearing from October 31 a batch of pleas challenging the validity of the electoral bond scheme for political funding of parties. The scheme, which was notified by the government on January 2, 2018, was pitched as an alternative to cash donations made to political parties as part of efforts to bring in transparency in political funding. According to the provisions of the scheme, electoral bonds may be purchased by any citizen of India or entity incorporated or established in India. An individual can buy electoral bonds, either singly or jointly with other individuals. The bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud is scheduled to take up the batch of four pleas including those filed by Congress leader Jaya Thakur and the CPI(M). The other members of the bench are justices Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra. On October 16, the top court said, "In view of the importance of the issue ..
The ruling BJP received Rs 614.53 crore as contributions, more than six times the funds garnered by the opposition Congress during fiscal year 2021-22. The Congress received funds to the tune of Rs 95.46 crore, according to Election Commission data. The Trinamool Congress, which is in power in West Bengal, received Rs 43 lakh as contributions during the period while the CPI-M, which is in government in Kerala, received funds of Rs 10.05 crore. The West Bengal assembly polls were held in March-April, 2021. In Kerala too, assembly election were conducted in April, 2021. The four national parties had recently filed their latest contributions reports to the Election Commission which made the documents public on Tuesday. The Representation of the People Act stipulates that parties submit an annual report of contributions of over Rs 20,000 received from individual donors and entities. Besides individuals and entities, electoral trusts also contribute to parties' kitty. Electoral trus