Campaign Finance Reforms in India: Issues and Challenges

ORF Seminar Series
prescribes that in order of preference, the first criterion is caste. So, the first
fundamental to look for in a candidate is caste. The second fundamental that
political parties look for in a candidate is class, whether he is an OBC, Forward,
Backward, etc. Caste would be, "I am a Thakur, he is a Brahmin" etc. The third
criterion by which political parties choose candidates, which we have been doing
over the years, is religion; whether he is from the minority, whether he is a
Hindu, Muslim or Sikh, etc. The fourth criterion is geographical location,
whether he comes from Bundelkhand, Uttarakhand, from the North, South etc.
The last criterion, which is quite incidental, is merit.
I have many arguments to prove the point I am making. I was looking into the
figures of the cash recovered (by the Election Commission). In Punjab, the cash
recovered was ` 12 crore and illicit liquor ` 32 lakh litres—7.18 lakh bottles of
X, Y and Z. I want to understand, how would you take care of this, how would
the State take care of this, as well as the distribution of hashish and opium? Why
should an election process require all this? Why? Because you have created a
system which you say is the most functional system and that the last man is
coming to vote, etc. I think during Partition, (then British Prime Minister)
Clement Atlee had said that India does not deserve this political (Westminster)
system, but we politicians said, “No, no. since they are saying so, this is the best
system.” Now, what has happened actually, where have we landed up? We are
not picking up a debate on this subject because it suits the political class, it suits
me, it suits Manish.
An aspect which most of us are refusing to acknowledge is that we have already
come to a point where we are having a referendum; it is no more a majoritarian
form of government. You look at Tamil Nadu, the reference is between
Jayalalitha and Karunanidhi, you look iat Bihar, the election is between Laloo
Prasad and Nitish Kumar, you look at UP, the election is between Mayawati and
Mulayam Singh, you look at Punjab, it is between Amrinder Singh and Prakash
Singh Badal, you look at Gujarat, it is a platform of the BJP but the referendum
is Narendra Modi versus others. We have already reached the point where we are
12
www.orfonline.org