Campaign Finance Reforms in India: Issues and Challenges

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Campaign Finance Reforms in India: Issues and Challenges To expand on this, in the US the problem essentially is that when a corporate makes contributions, it does so through lobby groups and they have the concept of soft money; they have fund-raising dinners and that is how they influence and change the policies. It is a very different and far more sophisticated form of corruption that takes place there. It has the same effect that we are talking about, the disconnect between the people and the elected representatives. That, I think, was identified as the fundamental problem affecting all polities. In fact, it is there in the United States. So, when we look to the US, it is not a rosy picture. The same problem exists in the UK. But one of the biggest differences is that the media there plays a very pro-active and reformist role. If it is a general election, the total amount of money spent will be on the front pages. There, they dissect the amount of money being spent, from whom it is coming, and it is discussed throughout the election period. You can find out the details in every local and national newspaper as to who are the corporates who are funding and how much money is being donated. That way, the electorate is more informed, compared to the lack of information as in this country. Thirdly, in the US, the disclosure laws are very strong and the courts are very stringent about it, and therefore you have a far better system. But coming back to corporate funding—and this is a warning because now corporate funding is being seen as the panacea for all the ills—in our Indian context, if we compare it to all other sources of funding, it is relatively clean. You need a judicious mix of State-funding, corporate funding and you lay down limits, membership fees, etc. It is a continuous process, so there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Dr Niranjan Sahoo: We need something like the Clean Money Act in the US. Be it, $5 or $2 or $3, it is all recorded. But unfortunately we are not making a beginning. At least, a beginning can be made at the panchayat-level, where most of the political parties would probably find an ideal setting because most of the experiments are happening there—including 50 per cent reservation for www.orfonline.org 39
ORF Seminar Series women. That was actually acceptable at the panchayat-level, not at the Assembly or parliamentary level. Mr. Samya Chatterjee: Just to give you another example. The US has been passing laws. I am taking this example because it is seen as the democracy which functions well. It does in so many other respects, but the point is that it is a 100- year process. Every 15 years they have to come up and change the laws because no matter how many laws they make, people will find ways to break them. The latest example was in 2001. There was a law called the Bipartisan Campaign Reforms Act. It was passed by members from both the political parties, and it was a very difficult Act to pass as it tried to ban essentially soft money and fundraising dinners, etc. In India, the biggest problem today is that we just talk about limits on contributions and limits on expenditure, inner-party reforms, etc. You have to put a cap on political party spending at some level because as long as you keep even one channel open, everything is going to be funded from there. The caps have to exist at all levels. Chair: We will have the speakers respond or make whatever observations they want to make. Mr. T. K. Arun: About the media reporting and analysing of corporatefunding, there is no data whatsoever. A prerequisite for it is that parties should report how much money they receive and that money should be received on record from companies. Then media can analyse which company has donated how much, and how far have policies changed in favour of which company or industry. We recently ran a couple of stories where we listed corporate-funding to political parties. This could be misused. So, first of all, you need stringent laws on reporting and disclosure. Only then you can analyse what effect this has. Let me tell you that the situation is far from hopeless. Thankfully in politics, apart from political parties and institutions and research funds and media, there are the people. Ultimately, only when the people mature 40 www.orfonline.org
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